


Triangle Love

by LastoftheStarMakers



Category: My Time At Portia (Video Game)
Genre: Banter, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, End-game, F/M, Flirting, Fluff, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Humor, Love Triangles, Male-Female Friendship, Multi, Post End-game, Romance, Slice of Life, Spoilers, The Author Regrets Nothing, The Plot Continues, allthefluff, plot compliant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-01-27 20:43:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 37
Words: 102,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21398374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LastoftheStarMakers/pseuds/LastoftheStarMakers
Summary: ~Happy Two-Year Game Release, everyone!~Builder Liz has spent her first couple of seasons in Portia doing what every new Builder does: gathering materials, completing commissions, expanding her work yard, assembling relics, occasionally helping the Civil Corps... And she's even made some friends along the way.Liz can't exactly explain what it is about Gust she likes so much, but they've grown close in a way that can only be rivaled by her friendship with the Captain of Portia's Civil Corps: Arlo. Unlike Gust, however, Arlo has been actively pursuing his friendship with Portia's newest Builder for quite some time. Will Gust ever work up the courage to tell Liz how he feels? Or will everyone's favorite Captain sweep her off her feet right out from under Gust's nose?And if he does...then what?~!**!~This fic starts in Autumn of the first year and faithfully follows the plot threads of the game as they stood at the end of 2019, so this is your spoiler warning in regards to that ;)Other tags/characters will be added as things come up.Rated T at present for some scattered cursing.Chapters with Explicit Content will be labeled as "(Rated: E)"Newest Chapter: "Gust: Home"
Relationships: Arlo/Builder (My Time At Portia), Arlo/Female Builder (My Time At Portia), Builder & Gust (My Time At Portia), Builder/Gust (My Time At Portia), Female Builder/Gust (My Time At Portia)
Comments: 98
Kudos: 92





	1. Arlo: Morning Routine

**Author's Note:**

> I got back into MTAP again after a while away and I was determined NOT to marry Gust this time...but I've ended up BFFs with him anyway. HOWEVER, in this particular play-through, Gust has not shown up to arrange a play date one single time (though I can't remember if he did in the other one or not), and as soon as I was buddies with Arlo, the Captain has faithfully come to the Workshop once a week asking to hang out. And that got me thinking.
> 
> I make no actual promises about updates with this as I'm taking more of a Slice of Life approach and only shedding light on particular scenes as they occur to me while I'm playing through my game. Some of it might just be silly, me poking fun at certain mechanics in the game or scenarios I experienced personally that amused me, but it's all going to essentially revolve around the plot thread of a certain Captain more willing to stick out his neck than our resident architect and the hijinks that ensue because of it.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Builder was so wrapped up in preparing her furnaces that she didn't notice anyone waiting on her attention... (Because let's be real, I've done this more than once!)

Liz stood back up, pulling the gloves from her hands to grin in satisfaction as she regarded the furnace working merrily before her and wiped the sweat from her brow.

Standing in the midst of her yard with the sun coming full up over the horizon she took a final glance at the rest of the devices scattered nearby, hands on her hips and letting out a small puff of air as she stuffed the gloves into her pocket and bent to pick up the rest of the wood she’d placed near her feet so she could put it away.

“Arlo?” She nearly dropped the bundle in her arms, startled to see the red-haired Captain of Portia’s Civil Corps standing on the other side of her fence, leaning onto it.

She wondered how long he had been standing there.

“Arlo, I’m so sorry!” She said in response to the grin he had for her as she blushed and quickly moved to put the wood away and rush up to the fence. “I didn’t know you were- I would have stopped if I-”

He waved off her concern, still smiling, “I called your name-”

“Arlo!” She started to protest, her hands on the top post of her fence now as she stood just opposite him, looking up at his towering frame.

“-once but you didn’t hear me.” He finished, shrugging. “Look, you’ve told me how caught up you get in your morning routine. It’s adorable. I obviously wasn’t in a rush or I would have spoken louder.”

She gave him a look at his descriptor and while he didn’t directly respond to her expression, his grin crooked a little wider as if he dared her to actually say something about it.

“Are you headed to the commissions office?” He knew she liked being there at 8 a.m. sharp, if only to confound Higgins who typically ended up entering a few steps behind her.

Liz nodded.

“I’ll walk with you.”

She blinked at him, “Uh, okay!” She tried to recover with a reassuring smile, “That’d be nice!” She moved to walk down the fence towards her gate, Arlo keeping in stride.

She hadn’t seen him much the last couple of days. Between helping with inspections over the weekend and using that time to restock on some ore from the ruins in preparation for the coming week, Liz realized now her nose had been so close to the grind she and Arlo hadn’t exchanged two words in as many days. Which was odd for them, frankly, since the pair had grown pretty close since her arrival a couple of months ago.

“I actually wanted to know if you were free to hang out tomorrow.” Arlo admitted as they made their short way from Liz’s gate to Peach Plaza and into Portia proper, “I could make some time in the morning, say 10? It feels like a week since I’ve seen you.”

“That’d be great!” Liz replied, hoping she didn’t seem too hasty. She always enjoyed spending time with him, though it seemed like he’d beaten her to the punch once again. Just about the time she would think ‘gee, it’d be nice to catch up with Arlo,’ the Captain would appear and invite her on a play date.

Sometimes it was a little uncanny.

“Awesome!” He at least seemed to share her enthusiasm and didn’t notice in the slightest her relief at his equally exuberant answer.

She kept climbing up the stairs to the office and he gave her a wave, “I’ll see you then!”


	2. Gust: Distractions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Apples and QQ and Gust. And also Albert.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This cohesiveness won't happen with every chapter, but this one does take place the same day as the previous chapter!

“Another apple for QQ again?” Albert all but laughed when Liz nodded sheepishly, “One of these days you’re going to surprise me by coming in here and actually wanting to put in an order for something for your workshop.”

Liz nearly stuck her tongue out at him playfully, “It’s a really nice one this time okay?” She pulled out the sweet-smelling fruit, larger than most of the other apples the trees around Portia would drop.

“Oo, that is nice.” Albert leaned forward somewhat greedily for a look as Liz pulled it to the side and away from his nose, this time actually sticking her tongue out at him.

“Not for you.”

“Oh, come on. Just a bite.” He made as if to reach for it and she laughed a little as she played a moment of keep-away with him and scooted around the edge of the wall next to him to break free of the bubble he’d met her in at the door and make her way towards the rotund piggie sleeping on his bed in the corner. “It’s not like  _ he’s  _ gonna know!”

“Go get one yourself, Albert.” Liz batted his half-hearted hands away and skirted his grasp to make for the peaceful pig.

He just laughed and Liz lost track of him as he moved off to another part of the room.

“Hey, little guy.” Liz murmured affectionately to the large pig, patting his side and earning herself some snorting huffs as QQ woke up and rolled over with excitement upon seeing her. 

“Look at  _ this.”  _ She said conspiratorially, holding out the apple.

More noises, sniffs and grunts, as QQ took a big whiff and his eyes seemed to sparkle with the thought of the fruit being for him.

When Liz lowered it so he could begin taking bites of it, she chuckled a little as the beast continued ‘speaking’ to her about how wonderful it was even as the chomping commenced, the warm breath from his nostrils curling pleasantly around the arm holding out the apple.

Liz suddenly looked up to see Gust had shifted around in his chair a little bit, leaning an elbow against his drawing board and watching her interact with his pig.

“Not going to complain about the noise this time?” She teased as she continued petting the happily munching pig.

The first time she’d come into the construction offices, the first time she’d  _ met  _ Gust and subsequently QQ, she’d dropped to her knees and immediately pulled out an apple from her satchel, much to QQ’s delight.

And Gust’s chagrin.

The blonde had asked with pointed aggravation from his work station what she thought she was doing, giving QQ a treat like that in the middle of his project and disrupting his thoughts with the pig’s excitement.

“I’ve gotten used to it.” He replied just as bluntly as he did everything else.

Unlike last time where she’d been so flustered at the encounter she could hardly stammer an apology, which Gust had waved off as ‘she hadn’t known’ before basically dismissing her presence, now that she was good friends with the Mayor’s son Liz could see beyond the somewhat stone-faced architect’s demeanor to catch how his lips were soft at the edges as he regarded the pair on the lower split-level, the corners of his eyes she read somehow as lifted just slightly even if the rest of his face didn't complete the gesture she knew he meant to create.

Turning away to pat QQ’s head and put the apple down so he could get to the rest of it freely, Liz didn’t notice Gust’s stare leveling on her and appearing to forget everything else in the room.

When she made as if to step lightly up the small staircase into the area of the office which served as his studio, he turned to face his drawings again, fidgeting with the pencil in his grasp a little, but unable to recall right off the bat what he’d been doing before he heard her voice at the door.

_ Dammit.  _

She had a way of doing that to him.

An apple appeared at his elbow, on the desk next to his easel where it wouldn’t interfere with anything and when he glanced from it up to her standing at his shoulder now, he saw her eyes trained on his papers with a calculating sweep he recognized as if it were his own.

Her head did tilt to the side a little and when the word describing it tripping across his awareness was _cute,_ he shifted away and quickly dismissed it, trying to return to his previous state of mind before she came in and finding instead her scent wafted over his nose at this proximity, floral mixed with something faintly sweet.

“It’s so cool.” He heard her breathe as if to herself, feeling his expression lighten the same way it had when he turned to watch her with QQ.

“Hum?” He intoned and made as if he had only just noticed her approach.

Part of him wished she’d say it louder.

_ Where on earth did that come from? _

“Uh-” She blushed a little, “Here.” She indicated the apple, “I thought you might like one too.”

He gave a single, small dip of his chin, “It’s okay.”

She grinned at him.

“Just okay.” He raised an eyebrow at her.

“Sure, sure, art-boy.” She turned to go, waving him off. “Don’t act like you appreciate it on my account.”

_ I wasn’t. _

He huffed, sharp green eyes following her retreat towards the door, “It’s not _art,_ it’s-”

“Drawings. Yeah, yeah.”

His brow furrowed in consternation with her and he meant to make further protest before she got too far, but Albert sidled in before she could get out the door and he let his stare fall back to his drawings.

Oh, shoot, he’d meant to ask her if-

“I’m sorry, Albert.” To her credit, Liz did actually appear apologetic as she rubbed at the back of her head and gave him a smile, “I already had Arlo ask me this morning if I could make some free time to hang out tomorrow, and I said yes. Only so many hours in the day to shift things around.”

He’d heard enough, maneuvering back to face his papers as Liz said her goodbyes and left.

Arlo.

It felt like any time Gust got the strange desire to hang out with Liz, he discovered one way or another the Captain of the Civil Corps already monopolized her time, so he would shove the urge away and eventually forget about it until he would run into her again and inevitably recall how he wished to spend more time with her.

She was probably the one person in Portia he considered himself closest to: Albert was a good friend, a long time friend, sure, but there were moments he had shared with Liz in her short time here that made him feel differently towards her than he did his business partner. Or his father. Or even Ginger.

Then again, he wouldn’t consider his father a ‘friend.’ Nor Ginger, really.

“Gust?”

“Hum?”

Albert laughed and reached out to clamp a hand down on Gust’s shoulder in his good humor.

“I  _ said  _ I was going to take these designs down to the dock to make sure they get shipped out and then grab some lunch. If we’re still planning on going over some business at Django’s.”

“Sure. I’ll see you there.”


	3. Gust: Nicknames

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Gust drills Builder Liz about his nickname...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one emerged out of Liz calling Gust 'art-boy' last chapter, so I just went with it. Hopefully Gust will manage at some point to come up with something better to call her than what he suggests this chapter, hah!

“Why do you call me that?” He sounded frustrated.

Liz tilted her head to the side and regarded the slender architect thoughtfully, “Call you what?”

His question had come out of nowhere and she watched Higgins scramble past her to get inside the building and check the commissions, but frankly she was so far ahead of him in the rankings already, and she’d only just arrived in Portia two seasons ago, letting him have first pick for once wasn’t enough of an issue to make her irritated at Gust for stopping her.

Besides, it was Gust. 

And while he still had a hold of her elbow to stop her when she’d all but passed perfectly in sync in front of him during what sometimes was their usual morning paths, his grip hadn’t been unkind, only such that he meant to get her attention more discreetly than most other Portians, who just would have yelled out her name accompanied by a giant wave in an attempt to catch her eye.

His brow furrowed further as if her not knowing what he spoke about was her fault, but he did not say as much, only letting out a huff as if irritated he had to extrapolate.

“Art-boy. Why do you call me that?”

She blinked up at him and then gave him a somewhat cheeky grin, “That’s what you are, isn’t it?”

His nose flared a little with a second huff and she had to work hard not to laugh at him, gently swaying her elbow a touch. He responded to her silent request by dropping his hand back to his side, the other still in his pocket.

“Maybe I should start calling you ‘building-girl,’ then?” His brooding expression hadn’t changed, though his response came after several beats of silence. Mostly because every argument he could come up with for why she _shouldn't_ call him ‘art-boy’ he also envisioned her counters for them. Art could be short for ‘artist’ or ‘architect,’ both accurate. And he was certain any protest at ‘boy’ would be countered with ‘man’ not having the same ring to it.

Liz raised and lowered a shoulder, “I suppose you could.”

One of his delicate eyebrows rose higher on his face.

Same grin: “It doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as ‘art-boy’ does though.”

Gust clicked his tongue at her as if disappointed with her, but Liz could see the gleam in his eye that had glittered at his earlier “building-girl” suggestion blossoming now into a genuine twinkle of amusement.

He wanted to find her infuriating, from the bits of her messy hair currently being gently kissed into swaying by the breeze through the Plaza to the well-earned dirt on her shoes and work pants, either of which would normally be enough to drive him nuts in any other individual. 

“If it bothers you so much, I’ll stop.” 

He looked down into her eyes, her expression still soft, but serious now. 

“I...I didn’t say it bothered me.” Gust couldn’t place this strange sensation blooming up from somewhere inside of himself, but his gaze darted to the side suddenly as if he couldn’t meet her with it any longer. 

Liz would have sworn Gust was blushing if she thought he was remotely capable of such a thing. 

“Well, then, I guess you’ll just have to come up with something to tease me with in return.” She said loftily, leaving him behind now and moving for the door to the Commerce Guild. 

He stared after her, wheels turning. 

“Is that why? You’re...teasing me?” He called.

“Maybe.” She dismissed him with a nonchalant wave of her hand as she slipped into the doors of the building. 

Gust’s teeth ground together a little and he stood half-glaring at the place where she disappeared for a few more seconds.

“Tch.” He dismissed her from his thoughts when he found he couldn’t bring himself to be irritated with her response, or lack thereof, and began meandering in the direction of the construction building once more.


	4. Arlo: Superpowers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Arlo witnesses the Builder's strength...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...and I get to poke fun at the game's mechanics XD  
Seriously, I stand by the assertion that true Builders in the MTAP universe have some inherent superpowers beyond what the physics of the world naturally allows.

Ever since the completion of Southblock’s main construction projects, Arlo had taken it upon himself to extend his patrols over the bridge to include the new hub of activity, and that meant strolling West along the southern bank of the Portia River in an effort to keep the Madcrab and Snaillob creature populations nearby in check. 

This being a task not often afforded him given how the creatures near Portia proper rarely wandered close enough to present an issue, while it was true he thought it best as the Captain of the Civil Corps to shoulder the burden, Arlo was also glad for the opportunity to daily hone his skills in a more realistic scenario than that of the training dummy back at home.

Besides being a fantastic excuse for warming up his muscles and a decent way of keeping himself alert on the job, he couldn’t say he didn’t enjoy how the exercise felt extra productive, a visible testament to his duty, and beyond that his actual wishes, to protect the people of Portia and its visitors.

While he knew others like Tody or Aadit would genuinely protest this and other expansions like it, that the creatures were here first and the true duty lay in maintaining the balance of nature and the environment, Arlo’s main concerns were thankfully not in making the choices that led to the necessities of his presence.

Not to mention the fact that to Arlo’s knowledge, genuinely wiping out these creatures was a task he did not for a second think possible, invasion of their territory aside. Even if he accidentally went overboard and left only one or two in the area, he knew by the next day they’d be back in just as equal numbers and posing no less of a threat than the day prior.

And no more of a threat, thankfully.

He didn’t really ever question it. Neither did he use it as an argument for others’ positions on the subject. Changing their minds or placating them on the necessity of his presence were not in his job description. The former he left to the Mayor. The latter he let rest on the nature and position of his office itself.

Wiping some sweat from his brow, his grin would have been all but infectious to anyone else as he stood for a moment in a breather. Sure, he was duty-bound to these circumstances, but if he didn’t _like_ it on some level, he wouldn’t have thrown his hat in the ring for the job in the first place.

Even as small as the adrenaline rush with these weaker creatures might be, it was still there. He still felt it. And sometimes if he could get into the right mindset, he could imagine they were dangerous creatures belowground in some ancient ruins he was exploring on a mission from the Flying Pigs.

There he’d trod, so precarious an environment all others had been banned from darkening its doors save him, nothing but his wits to keep him alive, beset by dangers from all sides but knowing, just _knowing_ if he could explore deep enough, he could bring back into the light some of the greatest treasures of the old world. Darting around a corner, already having defended himself from countless enemies attempting to ward off his presence, he would spy a mutated beast, then a third and a fourth, a thousand of them! All standing between him and his prize, and he would say to himself-

“Would you _please_ just leave me alone!”

The somewhat exasperated exclamation carried well across the sandy, only sometimes rolling plains of the Eufaula Desert and Arlo blinked, taking an unnecessary hit from a Madcrab that tickled a little and almost made him laugh at the absurdity of its single-mindedness in the face of the futility of its attempts that was his fight with it.

Throwing a quick glance over his shoulder, he spied what he thought to be Liz near a poplar tree off a ways in the distance, though he couldn’t make much out of her situation.

Finishing off his assailant and deciding his duty here had been completed for the day, Arlo turned and scanned the horizon, the poplar tree he spotted her next to at first glance already felled and actually making her a little easier to spot against the sparse landscape.

He watched her for a moment as she trotted off towards another of the towering trees he knew could not be found anywhere near her workshop and his heart leapt into his throat as he watched her wind her way through a few of the Desert Hoppers and appeared not to notice they started bouncing determinedly after her.

Without thinking, Arlo dashed forward in Liz’s direction even as he lost sight of her over one of the dunes, the several snakes in her wake still moving madly after her.

Bounding up the sand, still too many paces behind for his liking, when Arlo paused at the crest of the hill to reassess her direction, his legs immediately began moving for her almost before he caught actual sight of her again, sliding down the other side of the dune and sprinting across the desert.

Liz stood wide-stanced at the base of the poplar, such a look of concentration on her face that Arlo was certain in the midst of her well-executed swings she didn’t seen the group of Desert Hoppers closing the last bit of distance between her and them.

Just as her name would have blasted from his lungs in an attempt to get her attention so she might notice the creatures, Arlo watched half in horror at the predicament as one of Liz’s swings made contact with a Hopper and didn’t so much as stop. In fact, the Hopper _itself_ got knocked back a foot or so without Liz or her axe budging even an inch.

He nearly tripped and fell face-first into the sand.

“I _told_ you guys to go away!” Liz grumbled at them as if she found them more annoying than threatening while first one struck at her and then another, a third getting caught by the blade of her axe as she swung at the tree trunk one last time.

Letting out the most long-suffering sigh, the axe disappeared from her grasp as she drew a blade that made Arlo’s eyes widened further from where he’d stopped a hundred paces away slack-jawed to watch the encounter unfold.

_That’s a Nova Sword!_

_Where did she get **that?**_

Equal parts jealousy and awe, Arlo stared at the seemingly diminutive Builder, the same woman he’d finished in two hits when she’d half-jokingly asked him to spar with her just a week after her arrival in town, swing this mighty weapon nearly the same size as she with one hand as if it were little more than a butter knife in her grasp, managing to position herself so she could strike a couple of the Hoppers in a single swing, turning deftly and bringing the sword around to fell another with a second before picking up speed with her barrage of strikes and within just a few more seconds leaving the creatures all dead on the ground at her feet.

There hadn’t been much time down in Ingall’s Mine for him to take much direct notice of her skills. He’d been too concerned about Mint, too focused on trying to ignore the erroneous blame he was placing on himself for their predicament to be anything but a single-minded flurry of limbs upon the Rock-on once Liz and Remington arrived to help.

Now, though, when he had not a single thing to distract him from the absolute vision of efficiency and deadliness Liz was taking this group of Hoppers down, he found himself grinning somewhat stupidly at her as she let out another huff of a breath more out of dying irritation than breathlessness from the fight.

He didn’t even think she’d broken a sweat.

The sword disappeared as the bodies poofed to wherever they went upon death, and Liz at least seemed a little pleased to have collected a bit more snakeskin for her troubles, giving the item a brief toss of satisfaction to flip it just above her palm before it went the way of her sword to be replaced by her axe.

“That. Was impressive.” Arlo raised his voice just enough that she’d be able to hear him from across the way as he started to walk forward.

Liz paused in in the midst of her swing, her body tensing with the halt as it was her turn to watch him with wide-eyes as he came closer.

She blinked at him, somewhat stunned she hadn’t realized he was anywhere nearby.

“I think I’m going to have to ask you to teach me a thing or two these days, huh?”

His grin seemed to set her more at ease if nothing else, though he chuckled at her suddenly pink cheeks.

“N-no,” Liz stammered, feeling embarrassed at having been ‘caught’ dealing with the creatures, “I-I don’t think that’d be a good idea.”

“I’m pretty sure you’re stronger than me nowadays, I just didn’t have any proof of it until now. You were incredible. I was on patrol near Southblock and ran after you when I noticed you had these guys hot on your trail, but silly me for being concerned, yeah?”

“Y-yeah.” Liz had gone back to taking swings at the tree.

“I mean, we wouldn’t have given you free reign of the ruins around these parts if we didn’t think you were capable--” Sam had reassured him of her ability to handle herself after the WOW Industries debacle and Remington did the same when he’d debriefed Arlo about the bit with the mines, “--but I guess I really _don’t_ have anything to worry about when it comes to you.”

Arlo’s somewhat one-sided conversation died as he heard the tree nearby give a final crack and groan and he stared at its descent as Liz paused for a moment in her swinging to watch it before taking three solid swipes at its stump to break that apart as well.

“Peach’s breath...” Arlo murmured, glancing over at Liz as she wiped her brow with the back of a hand while the materials gathered to her. “You took down that whole thing in what, ten, maybe twenty minutes tops?”

Liz just shook her head at his astonishment and finally let out a bit of a chuckle at his commentary.

“Do all Builders have this superpower too or are you just amazing like that?” He asked with another grin.

He recalled just a week or so ago when he’d watched how quickly she got the wind turbines up and running on Eufaula Heights and, having not seen her in action before then, claimed such swiftness in assembly must have been a superpower all true Builders were born with.

“What superpower is that, Arlo?” Liz teased, poking him in the chest.

He leaned down closer to her with a particular sort of glint in his eyes, “The ability to absolutely exceed any expectation I may have of you.”

“Cheeky.” Liz was blushing again.

“You know it.” Always with the grin. “You headed back or are you going to exercise your powers some more around here?”


	5. Gust: Cold Winter, Warm Hearth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Gust warms up with the Builder...

Of _course_ it would start snowing when he’d left the house without a coat today.

_Too late now._

He was already on the downward slope to Peach Plaza from the graveyard and there was no way Gust was going to turn around to march back to the house when he was already more than half-way to Liz’s workshop and their pending play date.

Shivering in the cold, though, he picked up his pace, wondering why on earth she would have them meet at her shop this late anyway.

_I swear if she makes me ride somewhere on that stupid llama-_

He blinked rapidly as a snowflake caught on his eyelashes and melted just slowly enough for it to dance in his vision.

_I **hate** Winter._

Giving the dark sky an almost murderous glare at the offense, Gust hunched his shoulders and crossed his arms over his chest to fight back the almost constant chill Winter always gave him anyway.

He rarely felt so strongly about anything in particular, but he just could never seem to get warm anywhere but home during this time of year.

When Liz didn’t immediately open the door after he knocked his mood soured further, though he knew it was genuinely not aimed at her. Not _really._

But when he had to knock a second time, muttering a curse under his breath, he almost felt the deep furrow of his brows lift in amusement when he heard her call out a ‘Coming!’ followed by a scramble and the crash of something accented by a curse that mirrored his earlier word before the door opened and he found himself blinking down at her wild hair she reached up to subconsciously smooth under his gaze.

For some reason the thought of her having stumbled over herself trying to get to the door amused him, though by the way she was holding a blanket around her body in one hand, some book or another tucked under the same arm, he wasn’t surprised she had done so.

He shivered involuntarily and Liz’s eyes widened, “Come in! Come in. Please. I made a fire.”

She moved out of the way to let him by and he was careful not to step on the edge of her blanket dragging the floor as he did so.

Her home was much warmer than the world outside and it was a noticeable difference, though he still rubbed his hands up and down his arms.

“Here.”

He glanced over to see she had gotten the door closed firmly against the weather and was now reaching up on tip-toe with two edges of her blanket in either hand to try and put the soft material over his shoulders with a very serious face of concentration he couldn’t help but stare at for a moment before he accepted her offer and finished her gesture for her.

He always forgot how short she was until moments like this.

“Please, make yourself comfortable.” She darted away from him a little self-consciously and he didn’t have a chance to read the whole title of the book in her grasp--Structure...something?--before he followed her path to watch her pad barefoot over to a rogue blanket he realized must have been the culprit of her mishap, given the giant fan next to it she likely dug up from the ruins was knocked over on its side.

She stood up stiffly with the fan back in place and the other blanket wrapped around her shoulders and he realized she must have been embarrassed for some reason he couldn’t fathom.

“What were you reading?” He asked, noting his question made her blush even further as she held the book at her side, partially hidden by the blanket, more firmly to her thigh for a moment before relaxing as if in defeat and letting her gaze dart over to the fire which he only just noticed.

“It’s, uh, just something I picked up in the ruins.” Liz started as Gust silently removed his shoes to leave by the door.

He paused.

“We aren’t...going anywhere, are we?”

“N-no, I-” She mumbled something he couldn’t make out, and Gust only nodded and continued with the motion of stepping out of the heel of first one and then the other of his loafers.

They were so wet he didn’t even want to _touch_ them right now.

“Staying by the fire is just fine with me.” He announced as he made his way towards where she still stood next to a couch somewhat haphazardly positioned as if it had also been knocked aside in her hurry, but earlier drawn up closer to the fireplace he hadn’t known the house had until today.

Though, when he got close enough to see over the back of the piece of furniture, he realized she hadn’t been sitting on the couch, but in the midst of a nest of blankets and likely using the couch to lean against, another book within reach of the nest as well as a tray with what he guessed was or had been tea.

“Liz?”

“Hum?” 

He let out a breath that might have been a laugh at hearing the sound from _her_ lips of all people, “Are you okay?”

“Yes! Yes. Please, come sit.” She shook herself and gestured to the furniture before putting the book in her grasp down on an end table closer to the wall behind her, where he assumed the couch had originally nestled. “Move anything out of the way. Would you like some tea?”

“Do you have hot cocoa?”

Liz stared up at him as if he’d grown a new limb out of his forehead and he raised an eyebrow at her.

When the beat of silence went on too far, he continued, “Cocoa powder? Milk? Cayenne?”

His prompting appeared to draw her from her stunned state and he found himself staring at her smile, “No sugar, huh?”

“You’ve got it.”

“Of course.” She should have guessed. 

Liz nearly tripped for the second time in so many minutes as she started to pass him around the back of the couch and noticed the man practically _smiled_ at her of all things, bustling the blanket around her shoulders to distract herself from such an alien notion as she moved beyond him to the kitchen.

Naturally, once she got there and was already half-way through the process, she rolled her eyes at herself and remembered she left the tray in the other room only to turn and nearly jump out of her own skin _again_ as Gust, a knot of the blanket still around his shoulders in one hand and the tray in the other, turned the corner. 

“You’ll need this.”

She shook her head and he wasn’t sure if it was at himself or her own forgetfulness, “Thanks.”

Liz took it from him and turned away, placing the teapot and cup and saucer into the sink and pulling out a second set of two cups and saucers from the cabinet, unaware Gust stood behind her still as she busied herself with finishing.

He wanted to say something to her, but he wasn’t sure what, and before she completely finished, he padded silently in his socks back to the fireplace.

When Liz made her way quietly to the other room, she nearly dropped the tray and wondered if there would be anything about this evening that _didn’t_ take her by surprise.

Here was Gust, refined, albeit aloof Gust, sitting on her _floor_ in the midst of the pile of blankets she had been snuggly wrapped in before his knock, one of his long, slender legs stretched out with the sole of his foot facing the fire, which he appeared to be staring into absently.

Liz had definitely assumed he would seat himself on the couch and stood in place longer than she meant to, enjoying how the firelight danced across his pale profile, the blanket formerly up around his shoulders now partially slipped off behind him onto the couch, the corners of it still draped over his arms in his lap.

She moved quietly into the room towards him.

For all his penchant at being distant, Liz always found the moments they spent together so peaceful, his silence not overbearing or awkward or needing to be filled, but full of tranquil scenes like these where she noticed simple things: the cheery crackling of the fire, the scent of the warm cocoa wafting up to her nose.

Gust blinked back to the present when he heard the rustling nearby of Liz coming around the side of the couch and when he realized he’d stopped in the middle of trying to make room for two among the pile of blankets he’d claimed, he started to shift around again, calmly and gently tugging the blankets around and about him until they were situated so she could sit next to him in the midst of them.

“Thanks.” She smiled, stepping over the little wall of comfort he’d made and crouching down until she could safely plop onto her bottom on the other side of it, tray steady in her hands.

She handed him a cup from it, then took hers and placed the tray to the side, holding her mug in cool fingers and thankful to be growing warmer again.

_“Oh-”_ She made a small noise of protest and crinkled her nose, drawing Gust’s gaze. “I left my blanket in the kitchen.” She lamented. 

She’d _just_ gotten comfortable again.

“Here.” He replied evenly, leaning forward a bit and pulling the blanket she’d placed around him earlier out from behind himself. “Lean forward.”

Blinking owlishly at him, she did as he ordered when he had placed his mug within reach and shifted to tuck the blanket around her shoulders.

“Thanks.” She grabbed the edges of it in one hand, letting the mug poke up through the opening so she could easily drink from it. Mixed with the smell of the cocoa as she took a sip was Gust’s blend of what Liz equated to clean, smooth sandalwood and honeycomb. His scent from having used the blanket even for that little amount of time drifted faintly into her nose from around it and she tried to mask the deep breath she took trying to catch it as if she sought instead the aroma of the chocolate drink. 

He nodded at her thanks this time and leaned back again himself, picking up his mug in one hand and letting the other arm rest companionably behind her, across the seat of the couch at their backs. 

Liz watched him out of the corner of her eye as he took his first sip and blinked down at it and she smiled, recognizing how he enjoyed the taste in the way the cheekbone on this side of his face lifted a bit, even before he told her:

“It’s good. Thank you.” 

“You’re welcome.”

His eyes caught sight of the book now near his knee he’d seen when standing earlier, and he looked over at the one Liz placed down on the end table and felt doubly intrigued now that he knew their titles. 

But when he mentioned it earlier, she seemed uncomfortable. 

“The fireplace is well-made.” He turned back forward and looked at the new addition to the house. 

He recognized her handiwork, from the brick he knew she made herself in her workshop to the, if not especially aesthetic to his tastes, nevertheless, built-to-last mentality he had come to recognize belonged to her. 

Even in the designs she was given by other people, he knew her signature style of harsh, blunt angles most would likely call ‘neat and sturdy.’ 

She let out a breath next to him and his eyes, which had been tracking the rest of the ceiling and room, thinking of how he would adjust the design of the rest of the house if asked to upgrade it further, lowered to regard her.

He thought she seemed dissatisfied with something.

“You don’t like it.”

“It’s not...” She scrunched up her face and he watched as her gaze made a calculated sweep over the structure’s features. “...good.” She finally finished, giving up after struggling to find any words at all to describe it. She sighed and shrugged a little.

“It’s built to last.”

“Yeah, but it’s...” She let go of her blanket to gesture at it as if that would express her feelings enough. “It’s...it’s not...” She dropped her arm and huffed again. “It’s not elegant.” 

“Did you intend for it to be?” He wanted to know, still watching her and genuinely curious.

In the gentle, dancing firelight he almost couldn’t see how her cheeks flushed, and to cover her sudden self-conscious embarrassment that _yes_ she _had_ wanted it to be elegant, she put her own mug back down on the tray and climbed forward on her hands and knees out over their miniature cozy fort to place another log on the fire, using the poker to move it further into the blaze so it would eventually ignite.

“Maybe.” She mumbled as she busied herself with the task Gust wasn’t entirely certain was necessary at this exact moment.

“The angles are too harsh.” He looked back across himself at it again. “The bricks placed in a manner that makes everything blunt and-” He was going to say _ugly_, but checked himself when he realized Liz had leaned back again and was staring at him with an expression he couldn’t interpret.

“And ugly.” She finished for him, suddenly deflated and turning to grab her mug as if it were something in which she could drown her sorrows, “I know.” She spoke down at the cocoa, “I mean, I _knew_ all that, I just didn’t know how to say it like you did.”

“Well,” He allowed, unsure why it was so important to him she think better of the project when he had been all but about to say that exact word himself moments ago. Perhaps because she _had_ tried if nothing else, and he remembered his own first attempts all those years ago. Similarly, this was promising, but misguided. Without training or direction. “I wouldn’t exactly call it aesthetically pleasing. But I wasn’t lying when I said it was well-made. You seem to have the construction part down in spades.”

When he realized she was staring at him again, he raised an eyebrow at her.

“What?”

“Is that how you say that word?”

“Which word?”

Her brows scrunched together and he watched her lips try and form it, “As...tet-i-ca-ly?”

“Aesthetically?” The second brow joined the first and when Liz looked up at him, it was comforting to know him well enough to recognize it wasn’t amusement at her attempt to say the word dancing in his sharp green eyes, but something more akin to what she found to be his version of excitement when discussing a subject he cared about. “You hadn’t heard it before?”

She shook her head and made a negative sound.

He paused.

“Was it in one of the books you were reading?”

He knew damn well it was in one of the books she was reading. The title on the cover had the word in it for crying out loud.

“I...I think it’s the title of one of them..?” She sounded very unsure and when she looked around for the one she knew to be on the floor nearby somewhere, Gust made little ceremony of removing his arm from behind her head to pass his mug from one hand to the other, reach over with his now-free grasp, and snag the book from the end table.

He’d been wanting a look at it all night.

He pointed to the title, deftly unwinding a finger from around his mug to do so, “Structural Aesthetics.” 

“Mm.” She nodded, chewing on her bottom lip as she considered the word thoughtfully and Gust felt the corners of his lips twitch slightly as he recognized that look from her as well.

She was sharp. She had to be, to have made her workshop rise in the rankings as fast as it did in the short time she had been here. Picked things up quick too, which Gust frankly admired. If he had been a lesser man he might have been jealous of her. She had aspects to her he knew his master in Atara would have praised. He could recognize them well enough, even if he didn’t particularly have all of them himself.

“Why on earth are you interested in a book on architecture?” He asked mildly, giving himself a chance to turn the book over.

When she didn’t immediately answer and he looked up, she had already raised her mug to her lips as if to hide behind it and prolong her need to come up with something.

He leveled a steady gaze on her when the mug lowered and she said nothing.

His stare made the hairs on her arms stand up and sent a chill across the back of her neck.

An extremely pleasant chill.

“Elizabeth?”

And oh, how she _hated_ it when he called her that. She hadn’t a _clue_ where he’d picked up on her full name, but he was the only person in the entire town who used it and it was only in moments like _this_ where they were _alone_ and he-

“Because of _you,_ okay? Happy now?” She finally crumpled in defeat, hunching over her mug.

“Me?”

Of course he wasn’t going to let it go, she thought.

Liz sighed and fessed up in a series of quickly spoken admissions, “Your designs are always so cool and I really like them, all the new buildings in Portia look great, but I know you know that, and I was trying to make the fireplace look nice but I know it just looks stupid and _blunt_, but I had found these books down in the ruins a while back and kept them because I thought they would fill up my empty shelf a bit, so then after I tried the fireplace thing, I remembered I had them and thought I’d read them to try and learn something, but it’s just been really frustrating because it seems like every other word is something I’ve never heard, like _aesthetic,_ or a bunch of mathematical equations I can’t make heads or tails of--”

Gust glanced down at the book near his knee. _Structural Dimensional Theory._

Liz let out a small noise of exasperation and faded off of her rant, picking absently at the cuff of her pants.

He lowered the book in his hand to his lap, considering Liz for a moment before speaking into the sudden silence.

“I didn’t know you liked my designs.”

“Well, _yeah,_ they’re awesome. But you don’t need me to tell you that; you already know that.” She hadn’t looked up.

He did know it. But it was different hearing _her_ say it for some reason. And she didn’t even know a single thing about design. Obviously.

Liz slowly reached over and picked up the book from his lap, which he let her take from him without protest, and stared down at it and he at her as she tucked part of her hair back behind her ear when it fell and let out a little sigh.

There had been a particular reason why she’d asked him to meet her at her workshop tonight. While the blonde had never gone out of his way to ask her to hang out with him, any time she asked, he would oblige, and then afterwards indicate he could make time the next week as well. And so...she thought...maybe this time...she could drum up the courage and ask him...

“Gust, would you...” She stopped and his expression didn’t change, waiting to see where this was going instead of jumping to conclusions.

“I was hoping you might-” She turned pink again and he had to admit this time the color complimented her features, “-read some of it to me?” She glanced up at him, but didn’t quite meet his gaze and continued quickly, “Or, I mean, you don’t have to. Maybe just read it and explain some stuff to me. Or I could just ask you to pronounce something for me-”

Gust silently put his mug of cocoa back in his other hand after taking a casual sip of the still-warm brew while Liz continued rambling, and then put his arm back across the seat of the couch to her farther shoulder and gently guided her closer, pleased when she trusted him to let him direct her even if she didn’t appear to notice at first.

By the time her other shoulder was tucked snugly against his side and his arm lay across the cushions of the couch behind her again, she had the book open in her lap, scanning a page as if she might stumble across something she could ask him really quick as he leaned over her to look.

His proximity got her attention this time and he _almost_ planted a soft kiss against one of those still-pink cheeks when he caught her eyes darting to the corners to look at him. The urge to do so blind-sided him into freezing in place for a moment when really he had meant to tell her to turn the book back to the beginning so he could start.

“Uhm-” Liz’s blush deepened when she realized where she sat, eyes shifting down to stare at the pages.

“Go back.” 

Liz was certain she had never heard Gust speak so kindly to her before, so gently. Most of the time she felt like his voice had an edge to it that it never quite lost. But in this moment, that edge was gone completely.

“To the beginning.” He prompted again. “So we can start. Do you want to try or do you just want me to read it to you?”

“M-Me? Y-You mean outloud?” She stammered as she closed the book to open it to the first page.

He gave a little nod, “If you come across something you don’t know, I can say it for you. Or I can just read it to you if you’d rather.”

“P...Please, I...” Liz let out a little huff of air, and finally smiled again, “You might as well.” She snuggled closer to him and had the book up on her knees so he could see it better. “You’d be reading it half the time anyway if I tried.”

~!**!~

Gust had suspected something about half-way down the page and when he neared the very last sentence and she didn’t so much as shift, he let the words fade from the air until he could make out her steady breathing in the midst of the crackling fire which had a log added to it not too long ago and would last a good while yet. 

She felt so warm against him. 

At some point her head had come to rest against his chest near his shoulder and his arm had lowered from the couch to encircle her in a very organic sort of moment and at the time he hadn’t considered where his hand had ended up.

Under her thigh. That’s where it was. And while the gesture had seemed natural with their positioning, now that she was asleep and he had a chance to notice it ended up beneath a leg she had bent up to make a platform for the book, he blinked and shifted the hand away just as that leg started to slide down anyway. 

He deftly retrieved the book from her lap before it fell and put it on his other side somewhere near the empty mug he abandoned earlier even as she shifted in her sleep, turning to face him and snuggle closer. 

Gust let out a breath, his mind made up for him. 

He had been considering figuring out a way to extricate himself and head home, but now with her all the closer and dammit he was just so comfortable with his arm circling her again and somewhere near her hip and the fire was still warm and if it was still snowing the trek would be just the worst and-

He let out a breath that stirred her hair a little where he had come to rest his cheek against the top of her head and his heavy eyelids drooped farther closed, warm and comfortable and-

_This is...really nice. _


	6. Gust: Warm Hearth, Cold Limbs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a sick Gust complicates things...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A continuation of last chapter, "Cold Winter, Warm Hearth"

It was really curiosity that drew Liz farther away from the unconsciousness of sleep. 

While she felt warm and cozy, something trembled near her and aside from perhaps an aspect to a forgotten dream, she didn’t know what it was. And in an effort to find out, her sleep lightened and her hearing sharpened. 

Rare snap of an ember, the fire surely almost dead by now. 

Ragged breathing...nearby.

She could just make out the softness of the blankets and a warmth radiating from something next to her. 

Next to her?

Liz’s eyes fluttered open and after a moment of confusion, she recalled just exactly whose torso she had an arm wrapped around and would have started in place at her proximity if she hadn’t quickly after realized his arm had done similarly around her back. 

That’s when she recognized the amount of heat almost pulsing in waves off his body seemed unnatural. 

He shivered, and the pressure on her head that she suddenly recognized had been his cheek lifted as he shifted next to her and the arm around her gently squeezed her closer for a moment. 

Liz immediately pushed herself up a little and peered into Gust’s face. 

Tendrils of his long, strawberry-blonde hair were sticking to his neck which glistened in the firelight with his sweat, his shirt undone, tie loose around his neck, the rest of him obviously damp in places. She could feel beneath her fingers, propping herself up, his clammy skin.

“Gust?” She called softly and reached up to clear his face of some of those bits of hair also sticking to his forehead. 

His parted lips let out silent pants and she could see behind his eyelids a brief struggle to part them as if he drew himself from sleep at her call. 

Her touch near his face had him turning partly away from her as if to try and nudge against her hand and when he stopped moving like the effort was too much, she spied those brilliant green eyes peeking over at her beneath mostly closed lids as his chest continued to rise and fall noticeably beneath her other hand. 

Mind beginning to wake and genuinely assess the situation, Liz’s eyes widened and she froze in place. 

Sweating. Shivering. Flushed. Clammy. 

“Gust, I-”

He turned his head back to look at her fully now, eyes more open than before but with a fevered sort of stare she couldn’t read. 

“I-I need to get Dr. Xu.” She said it just as much to herself as to him, blinking and shaking herself in an effort to clear the lingering drowsiness from her mind. 

This was Gust. Gust didn’t get sick. Not ever. Not that she remembered. Not since she arrived in Portia. 

Worry immediately clouded her features as she tried to get her feet underneath her. 

The instant it seemed she meant to rise, the arm around her tightened its embrace and Gust’s eyes opened again to pin her with a sharp, jeweled stare. 

“Gust...” Liz said cautiously, no longer pushing against him to get up but staying very still as he watched her, “I really should fetch Dr. Xu so he can take a look at you.”

More staring. 

Neither of them moved. 

“Please? What if it’s serious?”

She saw him give the barest shake of his head. 

“No, it’s not serious? You don’t know that.”

“No, you...can’t go.” He murmured, leaning over her and resting his too-warm forehead against hers. “Please...”

Liz blushed at his proximity, at his voluntarily making contact with her skin, and then deeper even as she realized he was pulling her against him as close as he could manage, perhaps truly afraid she would leave. 

“My sister...” He murmured again, “Can’t tell my sister.”

“I won’t, Gust. Please. Let me go get Dr. Xu.”

“She’d worry.”

The hair at the back of Liz’s neck stood on end as she realized the little nudges Gust started giving to her face were borderline affectionate. 

“I-I’ll just run straight to him and back, o-okay?” She rambled, certain now that the gentle nuzzling of his nose against her cheek was intentional as it continued.

“I...don’t want her to worry.”

When his lips stopped moving, they were resting against her skin and she froze, even though the gesture didn’t seem fully complete. 

She tried to slowly back away from him a second time and at first met no resistance.

When he pulled away to look down at her again, his gaze glossy and unfocused, she stopped moving and swallowed. 

“If...I can’t go...will you at least let me check my storage? Please? I have a box right over there I think I’ve kept some medicine in and maybe it would help.” She tipped her chin in the direction she meant, over on the other side of the end table against the wall.

More staring. 

“Your sister would want you do whatever you could to get better.” Liz knew it was a risk even mentioning the relation, but her gamble paid off when Gust’s arm went more slack around her. 

“I’ll come right back. I promise.” She slowly started to rise, keen on the fact that he was actually allowing her to leave him and also aware he watched her like a hawk, and if she didn’t want him trying to chase her down in the snow, she would be wise not to leave. Not while he was conscious, anyway. 

She did have something in there she thought could maybe help with a fever, and she retreated back to Gust quickly so he wouldn’t think she considered darting out the door, which did cross her mind more than once. 

“Here.” Liz murmured, kneeling next to him as she unscrewed the top of the small container. 

Applying the salve across his collarbone as best she could, she only realized once she finished and sat back on her heels he had reached for her at some point during the process, his hand resting lightly on her leg. 

His breathing still seemed ragged, but his eyes had closed again.

When Liz tried to move away from him, those same eyes immediately came open and a quiet noise of frustration huffed out her nose as his hand shifted briefly against her thigh before settling again. 

_“Gust...”_ She intoned, concerned for his current state. 

The corner of one side of his mouth lifted just a touch and even in his flushed-face, messy-hair state, Liz couldn’t help staring at him, certain his actual smile likely had that effect on all the girls. 

Letting out a sigh, Liz set to cocooning him in blankets instead, wrapping up his long legs in one or two and making sure the rest of him was amply swaddled without being suffocated after putting the lid on the salve and placing it to the side.

She leaned up near him to throw another across his shoulders, watching him out of the corner of her eye as his face tilted in her direction. 

“...thank you...” She heard him murmur as she grabbed a second blanket to arrange over his head.

He sounded genuine for once and in spite of her worry, her lips upturned in a bit of a smile. 

“You’re welcome. Now don’t move.” She pointed a finger at him as she sat back on her heels, “I’m going to get the fire going again and then see if there’s some broth or something I can get you from the kitchen, okay?”

He made a small noise, face mostly shadowed by the cowl of blanket, and Liz took it as acquiescence, leaving him to do those things. 

When she came back around the corner with the tray and a mug of broth, it didn’t appear as if he had so much as moved and when she got closer, she confirmed her suspicions in that he had fallen back asleep. 

As she crouched to lower the tray within his reach, her eyes flickered for the door. 

_ I could go and be back before he knew any different. _

She for one would feel better having a professional take a look. The faster they could get Gust well, the less time his sister would have to worry. 

Liz tip-toed for the door, pulled her shoes onto her feet, and ducked out into the snow. 

~!**!~

Liz grit her teeth and looked out over the roofs of Peach Plaza towards the gate that led to her home. 

“Do you trust me?” She asked of the dark-haired doctor, who had to his credit woken up and grabbed his medical bag much faster than Liz would have in his situation. 

“Pardon?” Dr. Xu settled the bag between Liz and himself where he’d climbed on the back of the Colorful Llama she had tamed a season or two ago. 

“Hold on tight.” Liz warned, nudging the creature beneath her and taking off into the awkward lope she still hadn’t gotten used to. 

“Whoa!” Dr. Xu exclaimed, suddenly clutching at whatever he could reach of Liz that seemed solid as all at once the ground beneath them grew suddenly much farther away. 

The landings of the llama were always soft ones, but that didn’t make the sensation of its frightful leaps any smoother as Liz urged the creature onwards over the tops of the buildings separating the three of them from her home. 

The way down was much faster than the way up, the llama barely skirting the edge of the fountain in the middle of the plaza as Liz directed it as best she could after its final, extra high landing from the top of the Commerce Guild’s building. 

The endeavor seemed to exhaust it as it slowed drastically after just a couple more loping moves, barely getting them out of the plaza and onto the trail to Liz’s workshop at any sort of expediency. 

Liz’s breath caught in her throat as they passed the Dee-Dee Stop on her right and she watched in horror as Gust collapsed into the snow just outside her work yard. 

“Gust!” The scream tore past her lips before she could think twice and she leapt off the side of the llama at a dead run, the creature obediently following in her wake. 

Barely skidding to a halt in time, Liz grabbed for his shoulder and tried to prop him up so she could get a grip on either side of him to try and get him to his feet. 

While yes she could feel the unconscious weight of him, it was more the size that made it difficult for her to act as a crutch, to get a better hold and lift him. 

When Dr. Xu came running up and dashed to his other side, Liz realized she had tears running down her cheeks as she pleaded with him to help even as he already was. 

“P-Please...”

“Let’s get him inside.” 

They managed to throw his arms over their shoulders and rush towards the still-open door to the house, dragging Gust’s bare feet behind them. 

“The bed-” Liz managed, trying to steer them to the left.

“The couch will be warmer.” Dr. Xu had noticed the merry fire. “Or even the floor in front of it.”

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak and following his lead. 

“I’ve got him.” He said as they rounded the couch. ”Can you spread those blankets out a bit?” 

Another nod and Liz left Gust’s other side, rushing to move the tray with broth out of the way and do as Dr. Xu requested. 

“Leave a couple so we can cover him.” He added as he turned Gust in his arms and came around the side so the blonde could be put down on his back. It wasn’t pretty dragging the lower half of his body across the floor, but it got the job done.

The doctor immediately knelt at his side and after quickly jerking the blankets more flat where Gust’s heels had bunched them up, Dr. Xu started unbuttoning the few buttons of Gust’s blue jacket that weren’t already loose as his expression grew more pensive considering Gust’s features and symptoms with a trained eye.

Liz stood nearby wringing her hands and trying not to look as upset as she felt. 

Dr. Xu glanced up at her and gave her a kind smile in the midst of his work as he took a moment to push his glasses farther up his face, “Do you have something warm we can have ready for him to drink? Do you know how to make Red Tea?”

Nod. 

“For me too, please?” He requested, “And for yourself as well. We were out in this stuff too, you know.” He looked back down at his hands, grabbing the edge of a blanket nearby to wipe at Gust’s neck and face. 

Liz turned and moved for the other room, fully intending to retrieve a towel of some kind as well. 

“Liz?”

Dr. Xu almost didn’t hear him. 

“No, it’s Dr. Xu, Gust. Seems like you’ve gotten yourself pretty ill.” 

The blonde’s eyes barely opened, face flushed with fever. His lips parted but no words came out. 

“She’s in the other room.” Dr. Xu said quietly. “We need to finish getting you out of these clothes. I’m afraid they’re soaked through and the damp will do you no favors. Think you can sit up for me?”

Gust nodded and weakly shifted around, but still managed to push himself up. 

By the time Liz returned, Gust was beneath the blankets up to his neck and shoulders with Dr. Xu tending to his forehead with some sort of compress. 

“Ah, is that the tea? Gust was just saying something about being thirsty and I’m somewhat parched myself.”

Liz knelt on the other side of Gust’s head and put the tray between herself and Dr. Xu.

“Is it hot?” He asked as he reached for it. 

“I wasn’t sure how you wanted it, so this one is hot, this one is drinkable but warm, and this one is cooler.” Liz pointed at each of the three. 

“Thank you!” He reached for the “drinkable” one. “Here we are, Gust.” 

Dr. Xu had propped up the other with a couple of pillows from the couch, but still reached behind his head to help lift it so Gust could drink a few sips. 

Liz sat nearby watching them, knees bent up and arms wrapped around them. 

“Drink some too.” The doctor encouraged her as he put Gust’s aside and let her reach for the cool one while he took the hot. 

He made the most disgusted face after his first drink, “Ugh.” He chuckled a little, “It’s the worst. I-I mean, you made it well! And I sincerely appreciate it. I just really don’t like the stuff. After all these years it still tastes awful to me. But it should help keep us from catching anything.” He took another sip and shuddered as he forced himself to swallow. 

Liz gave him a little smile as she pulled her cup of it to her lips and absently took a drink. 

“Thank you for coming, Dr. Xu.” Liz said quietly. 

“Of course.” He watched her for a moment. “It’s going to be okay, Liz. You did the right thing coming to get me. It’ll take some time, at least overnight, but I have all the right medicine he needs.”

She nodded, staring down at Gust who seemed to be asleep again. 

“It won’t bother you if he stays here for the next little while?” Xu asked after a moment of hesitation. “I don’t think I could risk him going back home in good conscience. Not with his sister as weak as she is.”

“Not at all.” Liz replied immediately. “It’s no trouble. And you as well. You’re welcome to stay the night-“

“I’d prefer it.” He admitted. “His condition isn’t quite as stable as I would like.”

“It’s still snowing too.”

He nodded. 

“The sheets on the bed are fresh.” She added. “Or this couch or the chair over there. Whichever you think is best.”

“What if we moved the couch a little and brought the chair up next to it? The fire’s really nice and without other heating I think it’s best if we all stay nearby. Keep us all warm.”

They got up to do as he suggested, Liz also fetching more sheets and blankets. 

Dr. Xu insisted the chair would be best for him and settled down quickly as Liz added another log or two to the fire, having scooted the chair up so that his feet might stick out the end of a blanket and be close to the fire. 

Liz silently threw a sheet across the couch for herself, glancing at Gust every now and again.


	7. Gust: Cold Limbs, Warm Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Gust recovers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final installment of the scene series "Cold Winter, Warm Hearth" and "Warm Hearth, Cold Limbs."

Gust stared dejectedly into the joyfully sparking fire before him, blanket around his hunched shoulders pulled tight by a hidden fist to keep any would-be draft at bay.

He sat in the same place he had been a few nights ago when he fell asleep with Liz curled up next to him, but this time his legs were crossed underneath him in an effort to keep his socked feet beneath the tent of warmth he had made for himself.

“You know you don’t have to keep checking up on me.” He remarked grumpily when he heard the front door open.

“Who said I was checking up on you?” Liz sniffed in lofty reply from somewhere behind him, but only after just long enough of a silence to affirm the validity of his statement.

He let out a breath somewhere on the spectrum between a scoff and a laugh.

The sound of her movements first approaching and then moving to the left made him think she detoured around the corner to the kitchen.

“Did you finish your Red Tea yet?” She called from the other room.

Gust glared at the offensive drink sitting innocently in front of him on the floor.

“Yes.” _No._ He fished his hand out from the comforting realm of the soft blanket to reach for it.

_I’m so tired of this stuff._

A charge in the air of the room caught Gust’s attention and with his head tilted back and mug raised to his lips, he shifted his gaze to the opening in the wall over his left shoulder to spy Liz staring at him with amusement, hand on her hip and other hand occupied with something he didn’t look long enough to compute before jerking his attention back to his mug and feeling a deep flush color his cheeks.

Liz raised an eyebrow at him, but didn’t say anything as she moved around the arm of the couch to kneel on her knees next to him.

Gust only just set the now-empty mug down in the same spot as before when a smell wafted completely across his senses and immediately made his mouth water.

When he turned to look, eyes widening at the sight of the food on the plate in her hand, the moment Gust parted his lips to say something, Liz deftly slipped a thermometer past them and he closed around it obligingly, but returned to his previous crestfallen state at the reminder of why he had been quarantined to her house.

At least it wasn’t that god-awful eye-sore anymore no one would let him renovate before she got here. 

She’d had the same feelings on it as he, he eventually discovered, and when she approached the company a couple of seasons back for an upgrade, Gust managed not to trip over himself digging for the many plans he sketched over the years once she left.

While he saw the flaws in his design now as he always did once a project was completed, they had become increasingly apparent to him the longer he stayed and had certainly been a facet in accounting for the souring of his mood.

“I had to practically fight Albert off today.” Liz commented mildly as the pair of them waited for time to pass.

Saying nothing, Gust expressed his ‘oh?’ with a glance and a raised eyebrow in her direction.

“He wants to know when you’ll be back at work.” She quieted for a moment as Gust’s eyes returned to the fire. A smile kept fighting for dominance over Liz’s lips. “I made sure to tell Dr. Xu he’d been in contact with me. At worst the doctor will make sure Albert takes the daily allotment of Red Tea.”

Sensing the rising amusement in her, Gust’s attention returned to her face.

“At best, Russo won’t let him in to see Ginger for a week.” She flashed Gust a grin he found himself staring at before letting out a soft chuckle and shaking his head a little.

When after a moment longer she held her hand out to him palm-up, he turned his head back and let her take the thermometer from him.

She eyed it, turning it a little to get a better read, but fairly certain as she suspected that his temperature was normal again, “Dr. Xu says if you can keep yourself fever-free for twenty-four hours, he’ll give you the go-ahead to get back to your normal life.” She smiled at him and lowered the thermometer in her hand to her lap, “I’m sure you’d just as soon be free to do what you wanted as not.”

“Yeah...” Gust said nothing else about his thoughts on the matter, which he actually found to be somewhat split down the middle when it came right down to it, with all of the things on the con side of getting better having to do with _her_ and how he’d have less of her company when pronounced well. 

“Oh!”

His attention returned to her and he reached out to take the plate when she made to hand it to him, seeing again the Bacon Fish Roll he’d smelled when she first knelt down and his eyes widening as he accepted it.

“You’ve been looking like you were feeling better, so I asked Dr. Xu today if he thought I could make this for you. I know you haven’t had much of an appetite, but if you’re really improving, maybe it’ll sound good? He didn’t seem to think there was anything in it that would be a hindrance to you.”

“You...you really put some thought into this, didn’t you?” He pulled the plate closer and reached for one of the rolls.

Liz nodded a little, enjoying his appreciative expression as his stomach growled hungrily even as he sought to satiate it.

“Caught the Blade Fish this morning.” Liz filled the moment with companionable conversation. “And I still had some rock salt left over from the Winter Solstice. And Palm JuJube from my last trip out to Eufaula Desert.”

“Meat’s not that hard to come by, and I-” She blinked at him and fell silent when she caught him staring at her, confused even as he held the plate her direction.

He had a half-eaten roll in the other hand and he gestured to the whole one, swallowing and speaking up, “When was the last time you ate?”

She shrugged, dismissing the question, “This morning. Probably.”

When his eyes narrowed, scrutinizing her, she quickly tacked on, “Definitely. This morning. Yup.”

Her cheeks were taking on a pinkish hue and she wouldn’t meet his emerald stare, tapping her hands against her thighs and looking anywhere but his face even as he shifted the plate a little to try and bring her attention to the awaiting roll. 

When he shoved the half-eaten one towards her mouth, she took a bite of it completely out of instinct, surprised when his insistence manifested in all but force-feeding to her.

He gave a nod of satisfaction and turned away with plate and roll to continue working on it himself.

Liz chewed her bite somewhat befuddled and trying to ignore the rising heat in her face.

Just as she finished and swallowed, he was facing her again with a serious look of concentration, chewing around his own bite and reaching with the roll towards her mouth again.

She willingly took the bite this time, even if she wouldn’t look at him and kept fidgeting with the thermometer in her hands at her lap.

“I feel better already.” Gust concluded somewhat brusquely, drawing Liz’s eyes to his face as he stared down at the plate half-empty now. 

He reached for the other roll, for once sounding genuinely appreciative, “Thank you.”

“...y-you’re welcome.” Liz replied sheepishly around the part of the roll still mostly unchewed in her mouth.


	8. Arlo: Gives Chase

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Builder mentions Mali and steals Arlo's kerchief...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...and I get to delve into why Arlo wants to be a Flying Pig.
> 
> I feel like it's never really touched on much and I enjoyed detailing it a bit.

Arlo stretched and let his arms hang off behind the back of the bench, reclining his long legs in front of him and enjoying the crisp Winter breeze shifting through his fluffy red hair, as well as the moment to relax.

If not really ever completely off-duty in his mind, he always appreciated the chance to chill with Liz, ready to bounce up at a moment’s notice if Portia needed him, but able to sit still for a bit and watch people passing by.

He glanced down at Liz, sitting next to him on the bench under the Wishing Tree in Central Plaza. 

“You’ve been pretty quiet today. Something wrong?”

Out of the corner of her eye, Liz could see Arlo’s profile as he looked out over Central Plaza through the gates and to the grassy, snow-covered fields on the other side. 

Peaceful. Genuinely appreciative of a moment to just sit and do nothing for a bit.

Liz stared back down at the ground in front of her feet, letting out a silent sigh of air and unsure where to begin with her thoughts.

“You know you can tell me anything, right?” He added conspiratorially, leaning a little closer so he didn’t have to speak up as loud.

“Yeah?” Liz felt her expression lighten a little, though she didn’t quite smile.

“Mm-hm.” He nodded, looking over and catching her eye. “What’s bothering you?”

Where to start?

She hesitated, but he waited with what he hoped was encouraging silence for her to begin, gazing back out over the plaza and thinking maybe if he wasn’t looking at her she might be more comfortable.

“I-” She let out a breath, “I had Mali ask me to go with her into the ruins on the Western Plateau yesterday.”

“Oh? How did it go?”

To his credit, Liz thought Arlo sounded almost nonchalant about the subject at hand, and when she sneaked a look at him at the mention of Mali, his face gave nothing away as to his feelings on her or the subject at hand.

After the Inspector had arrived, Arlo told Liz about how Mali had been at his exam this last time. Up until then he hadn’t exchanged three words with Liz about how the exam had actually gone. Everyone in town knew he’d failed, and everyone in town maintained silence on the subject in a sort of unspoken agreement that it didn’t need to be gossiped about out of respect for their Captain and the amazing work he did protecting them.

Liz still didn’t know exactly what happened, but Arlo had admitted not only to knowing Mali, as she had been there, but also to having failed gloriously, maybe even immediately.

Whichever the case, Liz got the feeling it was bad.

“Well.” She replied, nodding slightly. That’s when her expression faltered and Arlo caught the confliction dancing across her face.

He raised an eyebrow at her, “Really?”

Liz nodded again, “Yeah, really. It-” Liz thought back to the night before and suddenly the words were pouring out of her:

“Arlo... She was incredible. Like, there was absolutely no reason for me to be there except she needed a couple of advanced engines installed at one of the doors so it would open. And the creatures in there were _tough._ Stronger than me. Faster than me. I could have held my own against them, sure, but Mali? She _decimated_ them. We’d get swarmed by five or six of them and she would take them all out with a single attack. One. And they were down.”

It was Arlo’s turn to nod. He could just imagine the scene Liz described. And he’d sparred with Mali on the rare occasion when she’d let him. He knew exactly how hard she could hit when she felt like it. One punch was definitely all it would take. 

The story didn’t surprise him in the slightest, but for someone like Liz, whom he knew to have by now surpassed basically everyone here by leaps and bounds since her arrival, he could see where she might be a bit overwhelmed with seeing someone like Mali in action.

That wasn’t the sort of strength you could achieve in just a handful of months. That was the sort of strength accumulated over _years_ of accomplishments.

“She’s pretty amazing, isn’t she?” He breathed, face full of respect.

_“Arlo...”_ Liz seemed exasperated and at a loss for words. The story did not seem to have the sort of affect on his demeanor Liz expected and she wasn’t sure how to approach her point tactfully.

In her frustration, she finally blurted out, “How do you expect to get into the Flying Pigs when you can’t even beat _me_ anymore?”

She regretted it as soon as the words left her mouth, watching Arlo’s face turn pensive as he considered it.

He let out a little huff, the barest of smiles lifting a corner of his lips.

“Arlo, I’m sorry-”

“No, you’re right.” He glanced at her. “You’re absolutely right.”

“Though, I really don’t think it’s fair to compare you and I.” He grinned at her. “I’m just a lowly member of the Civil Corps. You’re a _Builder._ Everything you _do_ gives you experience. And you have the freedom to do all of those things because they’re a part of your station in life.”

“Higgins is a Builder.” Liz muttered.

“In occupation only.” Arlo corrected. “You’re special. Like Mali.” His expression took on a shining gleam of respect again when he started talking about her, “She’s a true Adventurer. Not everyone will be able to reach her level of expertise.” He shook his head. “They’re just not cut out for it.”

Liz’s mouth opened, but closed just as quickly and she turned away.

_“Arlo always wants to spar with me and I've beaten him every time. But, this guy does have potential. 'Course, last time he tried to get into our guild, he failed pretty badly, heh.”_

Arlo caught her desire to say something out of the corner of his eye.

“You don’t think I’m cut out for it.” 

“No! No, it’s not that.” Liz thought by the careful tone of his voice she was skirting danger there. She had been going to say something similar, true, but Mali’s words about the Captain rang in her ears. She let out a breath.

“Why do you want to be in that guild so bad anyway?” She grumbled.

Arlo immediately knew his answer to that, but he tried to think of a way to frame it so Liz would understand and as such grew more thoughtful before he answered.

“Do you remember how long it was going to take for Mint’s crew to finish their portion of the drilling project between Portia and Sandrock? Before they...disturbed the AI we ran into down there?”

Liz blinked, unsure where this was going.

“Uh...”

“Three months.” He provided with the sort of confidence that indicated he knew, and Liz nodded. “Now, tell me the truth: how excited were you when you found out that drill tip you salvaged from the Rock-on could be used in a machine that would let his crew finish the project in _three days.”_

“...that was pretty cool...” Liz admitted.

“Right?” Arlo’s blue eyes were gleaming now with a kind of excited brightness Liz rarely saw in them. “And when you go down in the ruins and find that last piece of an artifact you’ve been trying to put together over at the Research Center for _ages,_ isn’t it just the greatest feeling?”

Liz couldn’t help smiling at his enthusiasm, shrugging a little in an effort to belie her feelings.

He leaned over and playfully tapped her shoulder with a gentle fist as if he could coax the words from her, “Oh, come on. I’ve seen your face when you’ve come out of there. Like a cat who's gotten into the cream.” He teased, face inches from hers.

She pushed him away from her with a laugh and he let her, grinning and sitting up next to her.

_“That’s_ why I want to do it. Part of why, anyway.” He explained with a deep-seated passion. “To be able to explore places no one else would dare tread. To bring back artifacts so we can learn more about what happened, maybe make the most famous discovery of them all and be known the world over!” He made a grand gesture, Liz still in fits of giggling at him and his smile carrying the same twinkle in his eye. 

He calmed a little and let her laughter die down before he went on, a new seriousness to his statements:

“To be called in like Mali when things get dicey for the locals, when there’s a chance of greater threats to the known world they can’t handle on their own. I want the opportunity to do some _good_ in this world. I want a chance to protect the whole Alliance of Free Cities, for just the whisper of my name to let people rest easy at night knowing I’m there. Watching out for them.”

Liz stared up at him, basking in his obvious passion for this cause he seemed to feel so deeply about and finally shook herself so she could manage to give him a reply.

“But you’re _already_ doing all of those things.” She put a hand on his thigh so he might look over at her. “Here. In Portia.” She insisted. “Everyone sees it.”

He pulled his leg up onto the bench between them so he could face her fully, “If I make it into the Flying Pigs, I’ll still be protecting Portia. But on top of that, I’ll be working to protect the whole _world._ I want _everyone_ to feel safe, from whatever dangers our ancestors might have created.”

Liz shook her head, but was genuinely smiling now, and reached back over to pat his knee twice before taking her hand away again, “Such lofty aspirations.”

“Think I can do it?” He gave her a lopsided smile in return.

She eyed him skeptically, but only said, “It isn’t my opinion you should worry about.”

“Maybe not.” He allowed, turning a little more serious again, “But it’d still mean a lot to me to know you were rooting for me.”

As if he didn’t already know. Maybe he just wanted to hear it again.

Liz’s expression shifted, becoming mischievous as she stuck her face in his and clamped her hands on his shoulders, “Thinking you can do something and rooting for you might be mutually exclusive. _Captain.”_

He narrowed his eyes at her, smirking a little, but he didn’t back down. 

“Is that so?”

She just smiled. 

“Well, then I guess I have to ask: what would it take to convince you I can do it?” He didn’t dare, didn’t even let the notion do more than pass briefly through his thoughts, but in this moment, staring into those eyes, it took everything in him not to gather her up in his arms and kiss her passionately right there where anyone could see.

“Hm...” She appeared to consider it, “I suppose for starters...you can catch me.”

“What?” 

The statement immediately puzzled him, giving Liz the chance to finish untying the precious Flying Pigs kerchief around his neck and dangle it in front of his face where his eyes widened suddenly.

“Hey! Give that back!”

She flicked it away from his attempted snatch and all at once was ten feet away from him, leaning his direction with one hand on her hip and the other flipping the blue material about so he could spot it with the cheekiest grin he’d ever seen her wear plastered all over her face.

“You little sneak!” He exclaimed, shifting in his seat to face forward as if he might rise. “You give that back right now!”

“I’ll give it back.” She stood up rather casually, resting her weight on one leg and the hand holding the kerchief dropping to her side. “If you catch me first.” She flashed him another grin.

When he gathered his feet underneath himself, he hitched forward like he might stand, trying to fake her out.

She didn’t even flinch and he found himself giving her a wily smile.

“When I catch you-”

“If you catch me.”

_“When_ I catch you, you have to promise to tell _everyone_ that I did. That I was faster than you. And how I’m the greatest Captain you’ve ever met.”

Her eyebrows rose higher on her face, the rest of her expression settling into a haughty calmness.

“Anything else, _Captain?”_

“Yeah.”

She waited expectantly for his answer, only for him to dart for her all at once.

“Too slow.” She teased, waving the kerchief at him tauntingly after side-stepping him and letting him trip past her a few paces.

The look he gave her made her ears burn, as if he’d like to do more to her than just take the kerchief back once he caught her.

His expression made her heart suddenly race even as she worked to convince herself she was surely just imagining it.

“If I remember correctly,” He began, voice low and sending the best kind of shiver across the back of Liz’s neck, “The last time I asked you to run with me, you were still out of breath once we reached the waterfall.” He stood back up, keeping sight of Liz in the corner of his eye. “I know you’ve gotten strong. I’ve seen it. But tell me...when it comes to endurance...do you really think you can outlast me?”

The look she was giving him nearly made him tremble, and one of his hands curled into a fist as if it might help him keep a grip on all of the feelings coursing through his veins.

She matched him tone for tone: “I guess we’ll find out..._Captain.”_

The instant Arlo took off after her, she reacted as if she’d read his move and darted for the gate at Central Plaza, waving her hand at something as she sprinted in an effort to widen the distance between them.

Arlo’s mouth dropped open as he watched her swing herself into a Dee-Dee, leaning out the side and sticking her tongue out at him as it turned and started to head back down the path towards the river. 

“Oh, now _that_ is just _not_ fair.” Arlo kept dashing after her rapidly distancing form. 

Letting out a short-short-long high-pitched whistle, he didn’t have to wait long before he could hear the rapid clip-clop of Spacer galloping down the hill from the Civil Corps stable as Arlo himself ran out the Central Plaza Gate. 

Giving Spacer a signal to keep galloping down the path, Arlo and his horse expertly timed themselves so that when Spacer raced by Arlo could pull himself up and over the saddle before Spacer sped off faster than before. 

Nudging the steed to begin curving to the right, Arlo kept sight of the Dee-Dee even as the horse veered West across the snowy field towards Liz’s workshop, the same direction the automobile was having to take via the road some distance South of him. 

When he caught sight of her darting out of the Dee-Dee when it reached the point where the road would turn North alongside her yard, Arlo leaned farther over Spacer’s neck and urged the horse onward. 

Just as Arlo and Spacer reached the fence to her yard and cleared it in one leap, Arlo watched Liz take off towards the Western Plateau on the back of the Cotton Llama he couldn’t remember her having a week ago. 

Jumping over the fence on the other side of her yard in pursuit of her, Spacer and Arlo continued striving to catch up as Liz led them through Emily’s empty field and beyond, past even the hot air balloons near the pond until Arlo spotted her climbing off the creature and glancing back as she set the lift to raise her up the side of the plateau. 

“Woah, Spacer, woah.” Arlo called gently as he started to sit back up and ease the horse out of the mad dash they’d been making. 

The horse almost didn’t listen to him. He could feel the chase had excited the beast and it wanted more, ears flicking back to listen as Arlo tried to soothe it further. 

They trotted together towards the lift as the Cotton Llama passed them by, nose pointed towards home as Arlo watched Liz give him a cheery wave while riding up away from him. 

He grinned at her and climbed off of Spacer as he lost sight of her, sending the horse back and waiting for the lift to return. 

Arlo wasn’t expecting to see Liz standing with her arms crossed within sight as he reached the top of the lift and stepped off. 

Moving cautiously forward, he caught sight of the blue material he coveted waving slightly at him from her back pocket as she shifted in place.

“Give up yet?” She called once he was within earshot, her back to one of the giant rock formations that peppered the Western Plateau.

“Does it look like I have to answer that?” He replied, continuing to move forward.

When he was still too far away to make a mad dash for her and try and snatch it away, she held up a hand and he stopped.

“At this point, I have to say you’re only going to get it back if you can take it from me.”

“That was _not_ the original deal.” He countered, mirroring her posture with his arms coming up to cross over his chest, smiling.

She shrugged, “You couldn’t catch me.”

“You cheated.”

Liz stared at him across the way, “Do you _really_ want to race me, Arlo?”

He shifted, suddenly unsure.

“Maybe.” He tossed back, unruly grin plastered all over his features.

“We could run around all day and you’d never be able to get it from me.” She asserted.

“Well make it sound like a challenge, why don’t you.” Arlo shot back, “Then I’m more inclined to _want_ to do it.”

“It’ll be challenge enough for you to simply take it from me, _Captain.”_

Arlo let a silent breath part his lips, the corners of his eyes narrowing at her across the way.

Liz wasn’t sure if she had taken it too far by the way the hairs at the back of her neck suddenly stood on end at the somewhat darkened look she was getting from the red-haired Portian.

“Lizzie...I’m really going to have to ask you to stop calling me that.”

On top of setting off strange signals in Liz’s head, she caught somewhere beneath his lowered tone a sort of strain she didn’t quite understand, and some part of her knew she was waltzing into dangerous territory, but it was the sort of danger that set her heart skipping beats in the best way possible.

Liz could never really pinpoint how or what exactly, but she _enjoyed_ who she was when she hung out with Arlo. As if he brought out in her things about herself she didn’t know were there, but his presence alone coaxed from her personality, and they were always things she found she liked. He was _fun_, he handled the mantle of responsibility well, he was someone the people of Portia looked up to, respected. And he had dreams. Ambitions. Goals. Things that kept him moving towards tomorrow earnestly. 

And quite frankly, in the midst of all of those things she realized she found him extremely attractive. 

All of these thoughts fluttered across her awareness in an instant as she felt herself responding to Arlo in a way she knew might in the next moment have her neck deep in trouble.

Holding her arms out in a wide, taunting gesture, Liz found herself tipping her head towards him a little with an insidious sort of smile:

“Come and stop me yourself, Captain. If you can.”

“Oh-_ho.”_ Arlo intoned, lips tugging upwards as he immediately took the bait without further provocation and ran straight for her.

One of the many things Liz learned along the way during her time in Portia was that efficiency was her greatest ally in the long run, that slow and steady could indeed win her a race, but being quick and simultaneously methodical would serve her even better, a trait lately she picked up was not one of the Captain’s strong suits. 

When it came to a fight, he would run headfirst into battle, lacking the finesse of Sam or the defensive calculations of Remington, and instead knocking a problem down until it could rise no longer, wasting precious energy when if he would _think_ before he acted he might save himself some trouble.

No _wonder_ he kept failing the entrance exams.

Liz waited as he closed the distance between them, secretly already on the balls of her feet and prepared to move whenever she thought necessary.

Just like before, Arlo tripped a few steps beyond her when she pivoted out of the way of his reaching hand, the Captain telegraphing his movements likely without even realizing he did so.

Or in any case, if he thought for an instant he was being subtle, he was sorely mistaken.

As if surprised he hadn’t caught her, Arlo blinked over at her where she stood just out of reach, one of his hands stretched mid-air in his attempt, her arms still crossed and an eyebrow raised at his astonishment.

Liz watched his eyes flicker to her back pocket where the kerchief was stuffed, she could feel it settle from her quick side-step, and when he tried to make a swift grab for it, she caught the movement almost before he made it and pivoted her hip away so all he grasped was air.

What followed was a series of rapid exchanges between them, Arlo trying a second straight-up grab, then one from the other side, followed by one where he tried to use his height and reach over her. She knocked his hand away on the first, leaving him blinking at her as if he hadn’t expected her to ‘fight back,’ pivoting back the direction she came from when he tried with the other hand, and pressing a hand insistently, but not aggressively, into his solar plexus to keep him at bay when he tried to reach over her.

Towering above her, his piercing eyes steely with an emotion that rolled over Liz in waves, he made to reach past her waist for the kerchief again and only the presence of her palm against him reminded Liz of the point of the exercise--herself becoming lost in his expression--when she felt the muscles shift beneath her fingers which warned her of his attempt. It allowed her the time to apply the pressure needed to his sternum to push him back just enough to let her jerk her lower body the rest of the way necessary to prevent Arlo from getting a hold of it.

He felt his fingertips just graze the material and he gave her a cocky grin, aware the both of them knew just how close he had gotten to succeeding. 

Liz finally saw wheels turning in his head and she narrowed her eyes at him from below his stare before she put the full force of her body behind a single-handed shove and caught Arlo off-guard again, making him stumble back a couple of steps trying to catch his balance and interrupting his thoughts.

Arlo went ahead and made a grab for the kerchief anyway, even though he felt certain this attempt would be foiled by the way she pushed him off-balance, and he was right. In fact, she didn’t even make a move to flinch out of the way as if she knew his reach wasn’t far enough to genuinely grab it.

He huffed, then, and went for the item again and again, finding himself foiled each time and unable to make sense of why he couldn’t manage to get his fingers on it, even as their movements quickened as if they were actually sparring, Liz knocking his arm away at times when doing so was easier than shifting her feet.

Growing frustrated, Arlo started trying to hold her in place, thinking if he could get a solid grip on one of her limbs he could effectively neutralize her movements enough to be able to achieve his goal, but she continued to remain just out of his mental capability to achieve _that_ goal either.

It was only the first attempt at wrapping his fingers around her small wrist that came anywhere close to succeeding, Liz delicately twisting out of his grasp before he could tighten his hold. It was enough for him to keep trying, though. And enough for Liz to adapt and never let him come anywhere close again. 

In a turn of events Arlo did not foresee, he suddenly found himself in Liz’s grasp, her fingers clasped around his wrists in an ironclad hold that was not unkind, but certainly got his attention. 

_“Think,_ Arlo.” She urged, tightening her grip briefly before throwing his arms back towards his sides with enough insistence to put him off balance. 

He took a step back and stared at her. 

“If what you’re doing isn’t working, trying it again in the exact same manner won’t change anything.” To say she was exasperated with him would have been too strong an emotion for what he read in her expression. Instead Arlo found something there that he hadn’t seen from anyone in a long time. Not from anyone in Portia, anyway, and certainly not from Mali, whom he had to admit treated him as more of a pest even when she agreed to spar. 

No, Liz offered him something different than Mali’s usual mild disdain. 

The willingness to teach him something, if he let himself be teachable. 

“Making a chip in a brick wall after banging your head against it a jillion times is hardly commendable anyway when it’s left your forehead bruised and bleeding.” Liz went on even as Arlo made up his mind.

“So what would you do?”

Liz blinked at him as if she hadn’t expected him to ask. 

“What?” 

“If you were me right now, what would you do? To get the kerchief back?”

Liz shrugged, her answer immediate, “Distract me.”

“Huh?”

“Distract me.” She repeated. “Find some way to draw my attention from the task at hand.”

“You mean like-Ohmigod look over there!” He suddenly shifted his stance in a big show of surprise, pointing dramatically into the distance. 

Liz all but rolled her eyes at him, pointedly crossing her arms and letting out a breath, “I mean, yes, I suppose.”

His shoulders shook a little in silent laughter as he stood back up and she did give him a small smile. 

“Well, how am I supposed to distract someone like you? You’re pretty unflappable as far as I can tell.”

“I guess you’ll just have to figure that out for yourself, _Captain.”_ She teased, sticking her hands on her hips and flashing him an impish grin. 

She saw it happen this time, the way a particular emotion in his eyes flickered at her in a manner that made it seem like he reached out and clutched her heart for an instant before letting it go, the muscle in her chest picking up tempo as if to make up for it. 

Her foot shifted away almost instinctively from him this time, but if he noticed he gave no indication of having done so. 

She watched him hide his brilliant blue eyes from her sight for a moment and swallow before his look returned, pinning her in place. 

“If I wouldn’t let Sam call me that, I certainly can’t let _you_ call me that, hm?” _Even if for two very different reasons._

Liz managed to barely nod when it appeared as if he waited for her response. 

“So why...” 

He advanced on her one deliberate step at a time. 

“...do you keep _insisting_...” 

Eyes wide, she mirrored him step for step, pulse racing in her ears. 

“...on doing it?”

Arlo abruptly leaned down over her and Liz meant to shuffle back completely out from under his gaze in so many steps. 

Arlo’s expression shifted immediately the moment Liz knew she tripped over one of the many igneous rocks strewn about this area, her heel catching on one in a misstep she hadn’t calculated. 

When her struggle to right herself suddenly left her with Arlo’s arms wrapped around her waist and her hands clutching at his sleeves as she looked up at him, she sat stunned just long enough to watch his expression turn from well-placed concern for her well being to a man who realized in the next instant the solution to his problem. 

Taking advantage of his accidental ingenuity, Liz felt his embrace around her shift so he still held her in one arm, as well as the slow removal of his kerchief from her back pocket. 

“I’ll be taking _this._” He articulated with supreme satisfaction with himself, dangling the piece of square fabric triumphantly next to her head for a moment before carefully standing the both of them up, making sure she had her feet underneath her before letting go completely. 

He took his time returning the prized possession to its rightful place and for that Liz was thankful, attempting to use the opportunity to recover her mental faculties. 

“Lizzie, would you...have any interest in maybe teaching me a few things?” Arlo asked sheepishly, barely able to glance over at her. 

“What on earth could I teach you, Arlo?” Liz replied, having managed to gather herself enough to find the question almost ridiculous. 

“You’re kidding, right?” He turned to face her, having similarly recovered, “You’re hands-down the _best_ fighter around here, aside from Mali, and she _barely_ tolerates me enough to spar with me on a good day, much less manage to teach me anything.”

“You sure that’s not entirely your fault?” Liz teased, immediately regretting it when she saw how the tips of Arlo’s ears went pink. 

“I-I mean, maybe, but-“ He sighed out something of a chuckle, “I’d like to think not.”

Liz stayed quiet. 

“So...whaddya say? Think you might be able to give me some tips? Uh, whenever you have the free time, that is. I know how busy you can be.”

“...she thinks you’ve got potential.” Liz piped up softly. 

Arlo blinked at her, at first not understanding and then not following and then-

“What, really?”

Liz nodded and was glad to see his lopsided grin return somewhat. 

“I would have never guessed it. She always acts like I’m such a nuisance.” His hand went up to rub at the back of his neck. 

He caught Liz giving him a gentle smile and he dropped his hand, returning her kind gaze. 

“Does that mean you’ll consider it?” He asked quietly. 

“I think I can give you my answer based on her recommendation alone.” She smiled at him. “As long as you honestly think I might know something you could find useful.”

“I do!” He brightened, repeating, “I do. Really. And I’d really appreciate it. You’re right. I’m not advancing like I could be, and I’ve fallen back into a rut of doing the same things I always do after I fail an exam and it hasn’t worked yet. None of it. Ever. So...maybe...if you don’t mind, you know, helping me out, I can actually get better. See some improvement.”

“I’d be happy to help, Arlo.”

“Great!”


	9. Arlo: And Mali

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Arlo speaks with Mali...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...and I get to talk about a glitch that happened to me XD
> 
> I don't know if Mali is supposed to join the fight with the Piggy-Bot 002 or not, but she was glitching around corners the whole time I was running around the Western Plateau ruins with her, and she got stuck on the wrong side of the lasers on the door when I ran into the room to fight the boss, so naturally it makes for an interesting take for her when Arlo asks her about what happened.

Arrow and Spacer trotted side-by-side down the path South out of Peach Plaza’s gate, Arlo and Remington tossing pleasantries back and forth after their morning run with Sam and Paulie.

Mali had requested their presence out near the lift to the Western Plateau last night after Arlo and Liz had parted ways, so the two Civil Corps members left the protection of Portia in Sam’s capable hands.

Climbing down off their horses and sending them back home for the time being, they made the rest of their way off the trail towards the lift, seeing Mali give them a wave in the distance and responding by returning the gesturing and jogging to catch up.

“-and the computer I found down in the ruins was of significant importance, if your Research Center is correct. Coupled with the strength of creatures compared to the rest of those around here, I’d like some help from those who know the area in making sure everything is secure.” Mali told them succinctly, “Since this is going to be your territory long after I finish my business, I think it’s best for you to be made aware of the situation so you can be prepared for any outcome, with the stipulation you maintain the peace among the people of the town by not encouraging any far-fetched rumors they seem to want to come up with. Not to mention the fact that since you’ve got tourists coming into the area from this direction now, having the extra eyes and ears to cover patrol with and for me while I work to gauge the rest of the danger is the best course of action I can see at present. Let’s get to it.”

She instructed them as to what exactly she expected, and eventually as the hours passed, Arlo piped up.

“So, I heard you took Liz with you the other day.”

“She told you about that, huh?” Mali eyed Arlo in a way that made him think she didn’t trust his commentary, as if he would somehow figure out how to get her to spar with him again.

“Not much, really.” He admitted, then grinned: “She was mostly too impressed for words at your show of force.”

Mali let out a bark of laughter, “Is that so?”

“Said you mopped the floor with whatever you guys faced in there. Cleaned ‘em out before she could get much more than a hit or two in on them.”

Arlo caught Mali’s hesitation and felt his curiosity spike even as she shrugged and went on, “I can’t say I was expecting a Builder of all things to be able to make a dent in what was down there at all, but she surprised me. I was the one who got their attentions, gathered them together because I knew I could handle it, could take them out swifter all at once than one by one. She knew her limits though. Left to her own devices, taking on only one or two like she intended, she could have easily held her own down there.” Mali laughed again, “I guess I do recall leaving her a bit aghast when I rushed past the first one she engaged to take on the other three in that first room.”

She fell silent and Arlo waited to see if she might say anything further about it, watching her swallow almost uncomfortably and trying to resist drilling her on what really happened.

“I got lucky.” She said quietly.

Mali’s eyes darted in Arlo’s direction, “You don’t breathe a word of this to _anyone,_ hear?”

Arlo stared at the Adventurer with a wide-eyed expression, too astonished to do anything other than nod his agreement.

After glancing over her shoulder to make sure Remington was nowhere nearby, Mali’s gaze returned to the task at hand before she continued.

“If it had been anyone else down there with me, I-” She let out a breath and explained. 

“After I salvaged the computer system we needed, alarms started going off and our main way out had closed, so we navigated through some security measures. Traps, really. Fire, spikes. Nothing I hadn’t seen before to be honest. Elizabeth picked up their nuances pretty quick, and we were worried the alarms might bring hordes of the Sentidog T-45s we fought earlier breathing down our necks, so I let her lead the way, prepared to keep them at bay. She said something about a clear room ahead and picked up the pace while I slowed a little to make for certain we weren’t being followed in case it was a dead end.”

Arlo remained silent, seeing the obvious confliction on Mali’s face.

“That’s all the time it took to separate the two of us. A few seconds, maybe? Just long enough for me to think the way back was clear and by the time I turned around to follow after her the doorway had some intense lasers blocking my path and I could go no further.” She was staring down at one of her hands as it slowly closed into a fist and opened again, and Arlo noticed an almost healed, wide burn across her palm he hadn’t noticed until now.

“The security measures had activated a Piggy-Bot, version 2, and your Builder had to face it alone.”

Arlo knew the resolution of the story, and he didn’t think it seemed too out of character for Liz to not have mentioned a word of this to him yesterday when they spoke. She so rarely talked about her exploits at all unless pressed. Liz wasn’t the type to make a big deal out of the stories to anyone, except maybe for Ginger, who enjoyed that sort of thing.

“I got lucky.” Mail repeated. “I read files on the area before I came. If any one of your other Builders here in Portia had agreed to bring me the advanced engines, and they had gotten into that room before me? They wouldn’t have survived that fight. She was incredible. If I hadn’t known she was a Builder, I would have sworn there was Adventurer blood running through her veins.” 

Arlo smiled, “She’s pretty amazing.”

“Portia should be proud to have one as strong as her. If the Alliance Council got wind of her skills, they would be keeping an eye on her at best, beating a path to her door at worst.”

“And you think that’d be a bad thing?” Arlo prompted, trying not to believe Mali might prevent such opportunities intentionally by her silence on the events.

Mali stayed quiet for a minute before answering softly:

“I think...I think she’s happy right where she is. At least for now.” She glanced at Arlo. “That’s why I don’t think we should say anything. Maybe some day she’ll be looking for a change, looking for more than what Portia can offer her. But for now...she seems very content with her lot in life. And I wouldn’t want to take that from her.”

Before either one of them could say anything further, Remington called their names and waved them over and the pair moved quickly in his direction.


	10. Arlo: Confession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Arlo takes a risk...

Arlo couldn’t stand it any more.

Honestly, ever since a couple of seasons ago when he’d come to understand how his affection for Nora was more akin to that of the little sister he’d never had, the differences in his and Liz’s relationship started becoming all the more keen to his attentions.

She wasn’t a little sister, she was an equal. Hell, she surpassed him in so many ways it made him work all the harder in the aspects between them that were different. So he could feel even remotely worthy of the time they spent together. He respected her, her work ethic, her intelligence, her humor.

And dammit, he _liked_ her. A lot. He valued her input, valued her companionship, was so grateful for her continued friendship this past year through the storms of change that had just started sweeping through his beloved town soon after her arrival in it.

The couple of days he’d been gone from Portia for the Flying Pigs exam, all he could think about was how much more he wanted to prove to _her_ he was worthy to be in their ranks. More so even than himself any more. He wanted to make _her_ proud to know him.

Which is what made it all the worse when he returned with his tail between his legs _again_ only to have her throw a celebration a few days after his return, for his accomplishments in the Civil Corps for Portia, a thank-you for its continued protection and betterment over the years under his watchful eye, a party he found out later hadn’t been arranged strictly by the Mayor as he’d been led to believe, but by Portia’s builder-darling, Liz.

Dammit, that’d been the nail in the coffin for him. He already loved her. He wasn’t sure when exactly it had happened, but somewhere between his awe and respect for her every time she surpassed even his expectations, he had come to love her dearly. More so than Sam or Remington. More so than Nora. And when he’d confronted her about what he’d learned in regards to the party and her involvement earlier this Winter, when she’d stood there an adorable bundle of uncomfortable and embarrassed that he’d found out and yet somehow still managed to argue vehemently in the midst of her blushing features with his private thoughts as to his worth and how it directly related to this exam and his continued failure of it...

...when she’d somehow sent his expectations as to their relationship crumbling once more when her angry tears aimed at his self-deprecation had sent splintering cracks across his perception of himself and his place in the world and resulted in the two sharing a long embrace full of tears from both sides as she pleaded with him to treat himself better and he reassured her he would try.

For her sake at first, if he could not do it for himself.

And if they were only destined to be friends forever, so be it. There were few thoughts that made him happier than knowing he had such a devoted confidant in the wide world as Liz the Builder, a woman of seemingly infinite facets he felt honored to find out more about every time they talked. Someone he was glad to support just as he knew she so staunchly supported him.

But he couldn’t stand it any longer. He thought there might be something more brewing between them. He’d be the first to admit if she asked him to kiss her he wouldn’t hesitate to do so, as earnestly as he’d tried to keep his thoughts clear of acts of indiscretion to her person out of respect for her as one of his best friends.

And he had to know. Had to know if his imagining the tension between them was strictly unsolicited, if she genuinely only loved him like close family as he already suspected she did. 

If she’d be interested in more.

His absolute fear at her rejection of him romantically he swallowed, letting it be overshadowed by the reassurance that he could not see her being so small-minded as to leave him high and dry even if she did not want to try to pursue one another in that other kind of relationship. And, truthfully, if she didn’t, so be it. But he was willing to give it a try, if she was.

And he couldn’t take not knowing if she would or not for one more, single day.

The crisp, Winter air filled his lungs with a brief, stabbing chill that brought his attention back to the world around him as he marched with purpose down the ramp towards Peach Plaza on his winter-rounds, knowing if Liz wasn’t already loitering around the fountain waiting for the offices to open he could definitely meet her on her short trek there from her workshop. 

It wasn’t that he didn’t want people to know. He just didn’t want people to know he had tried in the first place if he failed. His pride wasn’t so little that the idea of being a topic of gossip in regards to his possible upcoming rejection wouldn’t have stung deeply. Which is why when his evening stroll led him past Alice’s Flower Shop last night, the sky was already dark because the sun set early this season, he had paused because no one else was nearby to exchange coin for the little item lovingly made by the brown-haired young woman, exchanging a tentative smile with her shy one, her eyes shining bright with hope for him as well as no small amount of curiosity at his purchase.

“If it goes well, you’ll be the first I tell. But please...” He’d pleaded. “...I trust you to keep this between us for now.”

She was no gossip. He didn’t think. And anyway, she’d nodded and quietly reassured him of her silence on the matter.

In any case, Alice for her part would be pestering him for a full report should things turn out. It could be just the material she needed for her book. And as such would take her vow seriously.

Arlo swallowed as his heart began hammering in his chest, his vision tunneling in on the woman waiting patiently a few feet in front of the stairs of the Commerce Guild in front of Peach’s Fountain for the offices to open at 8 a.m. with her arms crossed, the air moving the bits of her hair around.

Liz was fairly certain Higgins’ workshop didn’t have the capacity for the commission Remington had mentioned that morning would be posted and relevant to her interests, but that hadn’t stopped Liz from moving like a whirlwind through her work yard the instant the green-haired member of the Civil Corps waved goodbye, keen on finishing as quickly as possible what she considered her morning chores.

She even beat Higgins to the Fountain today.

“L-Lizzie?”

Liz blinked herself out of her wandering thoughts to see Arlo coming up to her and she would have waved if he wasn’t so close.

“‘Mornin’ Arlo!” She turned and smiled, absently rubbing a hand up and down her other arm in the chill air.

“You really should remember a jacket or something, you know. Could catch cold.” _Stop rambling. Get to the point._

He stopped next to her and she let out a breathy chuckle and wouldn’t meet his eyes, “Yeah, well, I _have_ a scarf. I just _forgot_ said scarf.” She looked up at him, crossing her arms again against the weather, but went on, hoping to distract from her lack of proper apparel, “How’re your rounds going so far?”

“Good. Good.” He nodded in thanks of her query. _Ugh._

“I’m sure you’re glad tomorrow’s Spring.”

“I’m sure we both are.”

She shrugged, “I guess. Winter in Portia is very pretty.”

“Look, Liz, I, um,” Now that he had started and she gave him that questioning expression, he swallowed again and tried to keep going, eyes dropping away from her face, “I completely understand if you don’t really feel this way, because I could completely be misreading everything, but if you were interested in giving it a try, I’d like to, um, ask you if you-” His ears burning, he lost capacity for any other words, but lucky for him his fidgeting hands had already pulled the Heart Knot out of his pocket and had taken to fiddling with it between the two of them and consequently drawing Liz’s gaze to it as he struggled to continue, “If you, um, had any, that is if you wanted to, uh-” He looked off to the side and couldn’t for the life of him remember the exact word he was looking for.

For her part, Liz’s cheeks were bright pink and not just from the cool breeze reddening her features.

How could she tell him?

How could she say she’d been carrying around one of those same trinkets in her pocket for an entire season because she just couldn’t-

Couldn’t bring herself-

-bring herself to-

The soft sound of a pair of loafers passing to her right drew Liz’s gaze towards them, towards the navy colored shoes that belonged to the only other man in town aside from the one confessing in front of her whom Liz felt might hold her heart. A man who at this moment walked stoically towards the A&G Construction building without so much as a single glance her way, his strawberry-blonde hair rustling quietly around his shoulders as she watched him go.

-to choose.

Liz looked back at Arlo, part of his red hair hanging in front of his eyes as he finished stammering and appeared to lose all ability to speak.

“A-Arlo, I-” When he glanced up at her, searching her face for confirmation or impending rejection, her eyes darted over to the side, “-you want to be a part of the Flying Pigs, don’t you? I...I never asked you on a date because I just thought I’d be in the way.” _ I never thought either one of you would want to date someone like me._

He blinked at her and let out a breath between almost smiling lips, “Well...I mean...” He reached up and scratched at the side of his face, “That’s still a ways away, yeah? If I went off and left without asking how you felt _now,_ I’d never forgive myself. It’d be the one thing in my life I’d regret forever.”

He appeared to register the rest of her words and seemed taken aback, “_‘In the way?’_” He incredulously repeated before she could say something else, his hands dropping to his sides. “In the way of what?”

“...of you achieving your goal?” Liz shrugged, still not looking at him.

“Liz...Liz, I...I don’t even know what to say to that. You...if I ever make it _into_ the Flying Pigs in the first place, it’ll be entirely _your_ fault at this point! How could you ever get in the way of that?”

“I just...I don’t want you to give up on something you’ve been dreaming of your entire life just because we go on a couple of dates. That’s all.”

Arlo pursed his lips as he stared down at her before he spoke up again, determinedly, grasping the Heart Knot in both hands between them again, “Lizzie, I like you. A lot. More than anyone else. I love you, actually. I have for a long time, I think. You’ve been nothing but supportive of anything I’ve ever confided in you and you’ve let me do the same for you and saying I’m proud to call you one of my best friends doesn’t feel like it does our relationship justice. You’re the closest thing to family I’ve got in this town. And I-” He felt himself starting to blush again, “I understand if you’re not interested in me as anything more than a friend, than family. But I want to get into the Flying Pigs and I...I think want you too. So if you’re willing to share me, if I ever somehow _do_ manage to get into that guild, then I’m willing to be just as devoted to you as I am to them.” He finally smiled a bit, “Or...in any case, I’m willing to give us a try and see what we think.” His smile started to grow more unruly, “Maybe we’ll discover we actually secretly despise each other and want things to go back to the way they were before, yeah?”

He reached across the way and poked her in the ribs, earning himself a surprised flinch as well as her gaze as she breathed his name in a full two syllables in exasperation at the poke. 

“_**Ar**-lo._”

“What?” He teased, leaning down over her.

One of his hands left the Heart Knot and lifted up between them as if he meant to do something with it, but was suddenly unsure if the gesture would be welcome and paused, taking a silent breath and letting the moment hang between them as he finally had a chance to gaze deeply into her eyes.

“...Lizzie...” He whispered, unaware his eyes had flickered briefly from hers to glance at her lips and back, “Can I-mmph!”

She’d thrown her arms around his neck before he finished and simultaneously stretched up as high as she could and pulled him down closer to meet her so she could reach to press her lips against his.

The hand near her face circled to tenderly hold the back of her head, and she felt his other arm wrap around her torso and embrace her warmly.

When they parted, out of breath, he opened his eyes as his grip around her lessened and he gave her a lopsided smile, “So is that a yes, or...?”

Liz playfully tapped the arm slipping from around her waist and he obediently held out the Heart Knot still in his hand between them.

“_Yes_, Arlo.” She said it as if exasperated, but the tone was tempered by her own grin as she took the trinket from him. “It’s a _yes.”_


	11. Gust: Confession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Gust sees a risk being taken...

For the past week, Gust carried the damn thing around in his pocket with him.

He already re-made it twice, having crushed it stuffing his hand so deeply into his pocket, fingers curling around the trinket that plagued him so.

He already risked his unspoken intention to not breathe a word of this to anyone when he had brought the materials to his sister and spent several private evenings after he wrapped up his yearly sojourn with his mother earlier in the season in Ginger’s company making one alongside her so she would show him how.

She hadn’t asked him who it was for. But he could tell she wanted nothing more than to know. His somewhat lame excuse at asking her to teach him was peppered with the claim that they had not spent time working on a project together for so long, ignoring their moments of parallel endeavors where she would weave trinkets while he painted nearby.

Every time he walked past Liz in the morning on his way to the construction office, their paths crossing as the two would exchange a nod and a smile from him to her, his heart would start pounding and instead of stopping, stopping her, his fingers would tighten around the Heart Knot like his teeth tightened against one another in his mouth, neither action relaxing enough to give him half a chance to do anything, to say anything.

He would usually see her throughout the day after that, but no moment was ever so mind-wrenchingly tense for him as that first encounter would always be.

_Today is the day._ He told himself as he absently followed QQ down the ramp into the park, attempting to steel himself, build up the courage, something.

_Elizabeth,_ He would stop her, he would stop in _front_ of her. Look her in her beautiful eyes. _You..._ What would he say? _You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you._

It sounded like something out of one of Ginger’s books, but it rang true within his mind. He didn’t know _when_ exactly it had occurred, but somewhere between her sweet, if sometimes feisty, spirit, and his realizing he wished so desperately to know more about her, he had come to love this new builder in town. Why, just this season alone she had brought wildflowers to his mother’s grave that day, standing silently by to mourn with him. She had nursed him back to health, seen him at his worst, and still somehow wanted to talk to him.

People saw him as arrogant. But there was a distinct quality of selflessness to her that he envied, her ability to connect with others in a way, on a level Gust could never quite seem to recreate on his own, and it was something to be admired. And it was a connection somehow afforded to him too, when he was in her company. He was certain they all saw him differently when they were together. He may not have cared to be one of them, he was too busy, too sought after from abroad, but moving among them with her had changed how he viewed them. How he viewed himself. 

And the stories of her adventures he had sometimes listened to from beyond the doorway to the living room of the Mayor’s home as the woman lovingly entertained his sister sparked such fires of inspiration within him that he wished for nothing more than to ask her to just _sit_ for him, maybe down by the river where he often strove to paint the sunset, so he could try and capture with easel and color whatever it was about her that he found himself so enamored by.

But how could one capture such a spirit?

The few hidden sketches in his personal sketchbook never seemed to do her justice, pencil marks scratched in moments when no one else was looking, trying to recall if her nose was just _so_ or her eyes like _this,_ and more often than not crumpled and tossed into the fire to burn away his shame at not being able to bring himself to just _ask_ her to...

His heart leapt into his throat as he looked up when he reached the bottom of the ramp and the park, peering between the apartments and his father’s office, and he urgently murmured QQ’s name so the pig might stop and come back to his heels.

There she was. Still too far away to catch sight of him as he stopped to stare, Winter sunrise dripping light across her features like so much molten gold in a way that simultaneously made his heart ache so strangely even as he felt it skip a beat or two in its rush to remind him of the feelings he had yet to confirm she returned. 

And if she didn’t?

Well...

Perhaps she’d still agree to sit for him, at the very least. On her day off. Whenever she wasn’t busy. Maybe he could even invite her to come with him to the river sometime.

_Yes, that’s what I could do._

Gust didn’t realize his feet had already answered the tugging of his heart and pointed in her direction, starting to move him further through the park, QQ beginning to bound ahead of him once more. 

_I could ask her to come with me to the river. Bring my things. See if she would let me paint her, standing along the shoreline, hair lifted by the breeze. And in the stillness, I could ask her then. Or give her the painting when it’s finished and profess my feelings._

His hand tightened around the Heart Knot again.

As she stood there looking up at the Commerce Guild, all Gust could see was her on the riverbank.

_Facing me. No, the sun will shadow all of her delicate features. But if I did it profile-_

“Lizzie?”

Gust stopped dead in his tracks, watching helplessly as QQ loped out into the sunshine of the plaza and left him frozen in place behind.

“Mornin’ Arlo!”

He seemed so confident. She seemed so perfect.

Gust knew his strengths. Knew his shortcomings.

It felt like his heart was no longer beating. 

“You really should remember a jacket or something, you know. Could catch cold.”

How was he able to do that? How could he just _talk_ to her so easily? Gust felt like he never knew what to say to her without prompting, though she never seemed to take it personally, and more often than not he found himself telling her things he rarely said to anyone else that he tended to berate himself for as asinine or worse later. 

She was turned away from him now, harder to hear, the Captain of the Civil Corps towering over her as they stood together beside the fountain.

Gust always forgot how short she was.

“Yeah, well, I _have_ a scarf. I just _forgot_ said scarf. How’re your rounds going so far?”

She was so good at conversation. And just as comfortable with his silences when their words faded and they only sat enjoying one another’s company.

“Good. Good.”

“I’m sure you’re glad tomorrow’s Spring.”

Surely he hadn’t been imagining their affection towards one another. She would come find him at least once a week and ask after his time, usually within twelve hours of him thinking about how nice it would be to exchange more than a few words for once. He always tried to reassure her he wouldn’t be too busy the next week either, leaving the choice up to her when he wasn’t certain if he might be viewed as a bother for asking himself. 

Imagine anyone in the world knowing _Gust_ thought himself a bother.

“I’m sure we both are.”

She shrugged, “I guess. Winter in Portia is very pretty.”

It was much too late to call the pig back without drawing attention to himself, QQ having made his way past the pair all the way over to the door to the building Gust was supposed to be entering. He couldn’t get his feet to thaw, standing there staring at them from the privacy of the park.

“Look, Liz, I, um...”

There was something about Arlo’s tone that struck a sweet and sour chord somewhere in Gust’s soul and the architect found his heart sinking to his stomach as if he already knew what was coming next. 

_...of course._

He barely heard the rest of it. Didn't have to. Of _course_ others loved her. If she had _his_ thoughts, of all people, turning to ardor, then it was completely natural that-

Dropping any semblance of emotion from his face as he struggled to not move any faster than his usual meandering way out from the park into the paved Peach Plaza, Gust couldn't help but hear it...

“I completely understand if you don’t really feel this way, because I could completely be misreading everything, but if you were interested in giving it a try, I’d like to, um, ask you if you...”

_I’ve always thought of others as fools, but I'm the most foolish of them all._

Gust didn’t miss the Heart Knot Arlo had taken between his hands and fidgeted with, though he kept his eyes staring dead ahead at his goal: the door QQ was likely making quiet snuffling noise at in the hopes Albert might let him in since his master hadn’t come to do it for him yet. 

“If you, um, had any, that is if you wanted to, uh-”

He didn’t glance at them. Didn’t look at _her_, acting as if he hadn’t the faintest idea the confession unfolding within arm’s reach, the one he knew she’d accept, ignoring the odd aching feeling that had returned somewhere to the left side of his chest, but was more pain than pleasure now.

He let go of the now completely crumpled Heart Knot in his pocket.

He...

...

He had work to do.


	12. Arlo: Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Arlo and the Builder talk before disaster strikes...

“I’ll catch up.”

Remington laughed his deep, hearty laugh, “I _thought_ it was a little odd when you asked if we could run to the Plateau this morning instead of _ride._” He chuckled, “Tell your _girlfriend_ I said hi, yeah?”

“Yeah, yeah, get going. That way Mali won’t be mad at _both_ of us when I’m even later than you.” Arlo grinned, and waved off Remi’s teasing visage as the two veered off from one another, the latter continuing down the path and the Captain himself slowing down to walk past the gate to Liz’s workyard, peering over the fence to see if she was already out and about.

“Liz? Liz!” He called more confidently once he spotted her somewhere in the middle of the already massive yard moving carefully through her poultry as they clambered around her knees while she tucked feed into their feeder.

When she looked up, he waved and found himself grinning again as her eyes lit up and she tipped her chin up a little at him in greeting since neither hand was free and turned to shove the last of what she had in her grasp willy-nilly into the feeder.

“Alright, alright, let me get out of the way first.” She picked her way back through them to the little fence Albert put the final touches on sometime over the first couple days of Spring and easily hopped it to jog in Arlo’s direction as she took off her work gloves and shoved them in her back pocket.

He had his hands on the workyard fence leaning into it waiting for her, but she surprised him when she didn’t stop on the other side of it.

Liz stepped up onto the lowest rung, holding onto the top one with both hands so she wouldn’t fall into him, and stretched up to kiss him, the height of the rung compensating for the distance at least a little.

Arlo met her upturned face in any case, humming against her lips in appreciation and feeling her start to smirk a little as they broke apart.

“Miss me?” He teased, kissing those sly lips again before she could answer and enjoying their softness against his own.

He watched her shake her head a touch and pulled away again to see her smiling at him as her eyes opened to glitter mischievously.

“No?” His eyebrows rose slightly on his face as he leaned back down to plant a few kisses along the side of her face as well.

His hands gripped the fence tighter for a moment in the monumentous effort it took to keep hold of it.

He didn’t want Mali _too_ upset with him for being later than she thought he needed to be. Letting his hands up to reach out to her would mean fighting with his sense of duty and he’d just as soon not start.

The sigh of Liz’s breath moving warm air over his ear was answer enough for him about whether or not she missed him and he stood back up over her with that same winning smile.

“I don’t have much time this morning, but I wanted to know if you could free up tomorrow evening for us.”

“A date?” She exclaimed. They’d hardly seen each other this whole week.

“Whatever you want to do, so think about it for me.” He added. “There aren’t any tourists scheduled after six, so we don’t need the both of us over there and Remi’s going to cover Mali for the evening because he’s the best.”

Liz was smiling, “Tell him I said hello. And thank you.”

“He already said to tell _you_ hi. But I’ll let him know you appreciate the gesture.” Arlo kissed her one more time, briefly. Huffing out a bit of air as they parted, but knowing he really didn’t mind the work and neither did she, Arlo held back a sigh. They’d just seen so little of each other since the new season.

“Go on, then.” Liz nodded her head towards the path he was meant to take.

He kissed her again before she could protest, just a peck, before he backed away at a jog and gave her a cheery salute that made her laugh as he turned and eventually disappeared down the trail.

Liz stepped down off the rung and leaned onto the fence to watch him go before starting and remembering the time, heaving herself over onto the path and heading in the opposite direction of the redhead towards Peach Plaza and the Commerce Guild.

~!**!~

At least twenty things going through her mind, Liz absently led her Cotton Llama through Emily and McDonald’s fields, heading for the lift to the Western Plateau.

Paulie put a commission up for some Igneous Brick, and Liz had been meaning to make the jaunt out West to gather some of the rock for a couple of days now to replenish her own empty stash of it, but kept putting it off.

The commission was a good excuse to no longer procrastinate. She tried to stay ahead of the curve anyway, but had been up to this point so focused on the construction of the Lighthouse and material gathering for Albert for the rest of the harbor that she’d fallen behind on a few other things.

It was going to take Merlin and Petra at least a day to figure out the schematics for the sort of boat they wanted her to construct for trips to Starlight Island though, so that left Liz’s time mostly her own until they did.

Trying to quantify for herself exactly what sort of material the boat might require, and if there was anything she ought to pick up to make the creation of it easier when the time came, Liz absently swung her pickaxe at the rocks, aware of little else on the fairly abandoned plateau.

Mint had given her a drill a couple of days ago, but it just wasn’t the same, not to mention the fact that the device was so loud and she enjoyed the rhythm and effort the swinging of the pickaxe afforded her.

“Couldn’t wait until tomorrow evening to see me, hm?”

“Holy _shit,_ Arlo.” Liz breathed after feeling as if she must have jumped twelve feet in the air and spun around to see the Captain standing several feet from her with a smile plastered over his features. “Don’t _do_ that!” She clutched at her heart even as she tossed him a half-grin.

He laughed and came closer as he uncrossed his arms, “I’d been watching you for a while.” He admitted. “If I’d been some creature, you might have died.”

“If I thought there was a chance of anything dangerous moving around up here, I wouldn’t have been quite so unawares.” She countered, leaning on the head of the pickaxe and watching him move towards her.

“Fair enough. Fancy a break?”

“Couldn’t wait until tomorrow evening to see me?”

He laughed, “Touché.”

She raised an eyebrow, “Aren’t you on-duty, though?”

“We have to eat some time. Told Remi I’d keep an eye on things up here while I took lunch. We don’t have any tourists scheduled for the bus for the next few shifts, so there’s no need for two of us to be down there, but Mali’s surveying the ruins at the moment and we’re supposed to divide our time between the two areas when we can. We’ll switch off once I’m done so he can hide up here and eat where any stray tourists can’t see.” He held out a hand to her, “Sit with me?”

If he wasn’t equally as smiley when they were together, Liz would have felt stupid for how her cheeks always got sore for doing the same.

Pickaxe put away, she took his hand and he led her over to one of the cinnamon trees nearby, sitting down with his back against it and pulling her to sit between his legs.

While she situated herself, he rifled through his Waist Pack and passed her some simple bread and cheese when she leaned into his chest.

Her hand came to rest just above the knee he had raised up next to her as she munched contentedly on his offering and he opted to eat one-handed as well as he reached out to cover it with one of his.

Arlo watched their fingers weave together, his lips twitching happily even as he chewed, and he gave a gentle squeeze of appreciation for her attentions.

“Sam told me you did us a big favor yesterday.” He piped up between bites.

“Mm?” Liz hummed noncommittally around her food.

“Helped bring in Huss and Tuss. She debriefed me on the whole situation. They’re locked up at the moment. I really appreciate you offering to help. Between Mali’s demands and the influx of all the people lately, our forces are spread pretty thin.”

“Mm. They sai’ some’fing-” Liz swallowed, “They said something about...they were given the Locator Computer?”

Arlo frowned, “Yeah. Questioning went about like that. To be perfectly honest, they’ve always been so proud of their exploits in the past that it’s especially strange to have them insisting they weren’t the ones that actually did it, caught with the thing or not.”

“I watched Merlin tear into Minister Lee the day before yesterday.” Liz told him. “In front of Peach Plaza and everybody. Accused him of stealing, yadda yadda. Which is ridiculous in the first place. I don’t think that man would stoop to _stealing_ something, whether he agreed to it fundamentally or not.”

Arlo nodded, and then voiced his agreement with her thoughts when he remembered she couldn’t see him.

“They stomped towards Gale’s office dragging poor Nora and Petra into their mess and I just left them to it, to be honest. Nora caught up with me yesterday and asked if I’d look into it, since you and Remi are tied up helping Mali.” Liz shrugged, “So I went and found Sam.”

“Well, you did more than just find Sam. I know better than that.” Arlo leaned over her shoulder to kiss her cheek in thanks before leaning back again, leaving Liz blushing a little and staring down at her food. “I never really thought we would need more than three members for Portia’s Civil Corps, but with all the expansion, we haven’t even had time to submit the request for a fourth to the Council. You’ve been a literal life-saver, you know that? And I couldn’t be prouder to have you as a de facto member of our ranks.” 

“You sure you won’t join us officially?” He teased. “We could certainly do worse than having you as that fourth member.”

“Much. Worse.”

Arlo laughed and he felt Liz chuckle against him.

“So have you thought about what you want to do tomorrow night?”

Arlo felt Liz stiffen suddenly, “Uh, I mean, it’s no big deal if you haven’t-”

She tapped his leg with the hand he held, “Arlo...Arlo, look, what is that?”

He followed the pointing of her other hand that still clutched part of the lunch he was sharing with her across the plateau and towards the harbor.

“Oh. My. God.”

In the next moment the both of them were scrambling to their feet, Liz letting two short whistles pitch high from between her lips.

The Cotton Llama waiting nearby got onto its feet and started to move for them.

“Get on!” Liz ordered of the Captain, Arlo hot on her heels.

They were already off before his hands went to clutch at her waist and she didn’t even bother to tell him to hold on as the Llama tore urgently towards the edge of the plateau.

_Oh, shit._

The thought didn’t even make it out of Arlo’s lips before the creature launched itself over the side of the cliff, landing softly on the ground before taking off again.

“Fire at the harbor! Stay here for me!” Arlo shouted at Remington as he and Liz shot past the green-haired Portian and down the slopes towards the sea.

Arlo was slipping off the back of the llama before it did much more than slow, Liz pulling back on the reigns.

He turned to stop her getting off, “Go get the Mayor.”

“ARLO!”

He whipped around to see Wuwa waving frantically to get his attention and he reiterated to Liz as he dashed away:

“Go!”

Liz nodded and steered the llama the other direction, back North towards the office.

~!**!~

Wuwa passed Arlo the bottle of water he’d been drinking from and the Captain graciously took it and downed the last bit, staring dejectedly from where the two of them were sitting up against a building nearby in the shade at the warehouse remains still glowing in places .

Arlo wiped at the sweat of his brow as he put the cap back on the bottle and Wuwa took it back to refill later.

The damage had already been mostly done by the time he and Liz arrived, Wuwa having pulled up to port after frantically trying to urge his boat back to the harbor just as quick as he was able once he spotted the smoke from out at sea, but Arlo and the sailor had spent the past several minutes running around making sure no one was inside or hurt or that the fire was in danger of spreading.

Luckily, the warehouse hadn’t been stocked yet, and Arlo was trying to take every bit of silver lining in regards to this particular raincloud that he could get.

_Who on earth would bother with something like this?_

Not that Arlo would have suspected Wuwa of having started the fire anyway, but Wuwa did have the return mail and it was part of his schedule to have been gone at that time of day. If someone pressed him on it, Arlo was sure they could get confirmation Wuwa had been doing exactly what he said at the time the fire might have started.

Arlo couldn’t make sense of it. He wouldn’t have thought anybody in Portia would have it in them to commit something like _arson_ of all things, though he had noticed it happened at a time when no one else was around, and therefore no one else was hurt. And to one of the few warehouses that had little in it as of yet.

He stared at the building across the way, next to the warehouse. Completely unscathed.

In fact, the wall of it had been thoroughly soaked in what Arlo thought to be water, as if whoever did this wanted something of a controlled attack.

Not to mention the fact the big ole honking sign in front of the warehouse all but incriminated _somebody_ if they could just figure out who.

“Arlo! Oh no, it really _is_ bad!”

Arlo got himself to his feet as he heard the Mayor’s voice coming from nearby, seeing Liz helping Gale slide off her Cotton Llama’s back before slipping quietly from it herself.

Gale shook his head, “Albert’s certainly not going to like this one bit.”

“I just ran straight for the Mayor, Albert doesn’t know yet.” Liz murmured as she walked towards the Captain.

Arlo slipped an arm across her shoulders and hugged her to him, planting a kiss in the midst of her hair and just holding her there for a minute tucked against him.

When Gale started towards the heated ruins, Arlo pulled Liz along beside him to follow.

“There was hardly anything left by the time I got here.” Arlo said. “Luckily, there didn’t seem to be anyone inside and as far as I can tell this warehouse was pretty empty by the look of it.”

“How did this happen?” Gale shook his head, eyeing the smolders from a few feet away.

“It’s definitely intentional. Just look at that sign...Someone doesn’t want this harbor built.”

“I-”

The others turned to look at Wuwa, who seemed somewhat pale in the face.

“I didn’t really think he’d do it, but...” He looked up at Arlo sadly, “I think you need to go have a talk with Tody.”

“Why would he do this?” Gale seemed just as astonished as Liz that any one of the Portians might set fire to an entire building.

“I’ll go have a chat with him.” Arlo just nodded to Wuwa and took his arm back from around Liz’s shoulders, murmuring, “Thanks, luv,” to her as he turned and trotted off in search of the fisherman.

“Mayor?” Liz stepped towards the stocky man, “Can I take you back to town? I think there’s not much else to do here right now.”

“You’re right, Liz. Thank you. We should go talk to Albert and see what can be done about this mess.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, so, in the game you find out the warehouse gets burnt down the morning after you finish the Theft quest, but by the time I realized that was the actual order of it, I was already almost at the point where I was going to have Arlo and Liz spot the smoke, so, yeah. Just wanted to say that this was one moment where I ignored game mechanics/general story progression that wasn’t intentional, lul! Unlike having Wuwa there instead of Albert. That part was on purpose in any case, just because it worked out better, heh.


	13. Arlo: The Knight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Arlo can't forgive himself without help...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Especially after watching the cutscene I refer to in this chapter, I _can't_ be the only one around here who is just like NO WONDER YOU CAN'T GET INTO THE FLYING PIGS ARLO YOU SMARMY LITTLE GIT.
> 
> Note: He is neither smarmy nor a git, but seriously, for someone who wants something so badly, his writers sure did a bang up job giving us all kinds of reasons as to why he keeps failing the test XD

First, the warehouse burned down, and now _this_...

Arlo stared at Liz’s pallid, unresponsive face from where he sat next to the hospital bed in Dr. Xu’s clinic, hunched over in his chair with his elbows resting heavily on his knees. 

He remembered her frantic expression when he’d insisted on opening his big mouth when the Rogue Knight they faced just hours ago meant to leave them be.

If she hadn’t acted so quickly, stepped between them and taken the brunt of the Knight’s answering slash with her Nova Sword, Arlo wasn’t certain his own head would still be connected to his shoulders. 

He buried his face in his hands, unable to escape all the still-fresh memories of how almost everything in the past couple of days had gone so very wrong, the fight with the Knight being the most recent. 

His brash statement of excitement for such an opponent. Mali’s level-headed orders. He hadn’t so much as ignored them as frankly been knocked aside almost immediately. And the only good it had done was keep the Knight’s attention long enough for the other three to close in. 

By the time he managed to pick himself up off the floor to try again, he watched Sam get batted aside as if she were only a fly, slamming into a wall and at least having the wind knocked out of her long enough for Arlo to gather himself, grit his teeth and try to provide support to Mali and Liz before Sam had even stirred. 

He couldn’t say for sure, but he got the distinct feeling the Knight started out only toying with them.

In the midst of the battle, Arlo hadn’t had time to berate himself for his rash attitude, but now, sitting next to the woman he loved and not knowing if she might wake up, Arlo did not think he could feel any more defeated. 

_No wonder I can’t get into the Flying Pigs._

Mali had made her stand much longer, obviously aware of how dangerous this Knight could be, and Liz too did not take long to sense how capable her opponent was and react accordingly. 

Arlo? Arlo charged at the problem like he always did. Even Sam hadn’t been half as stupid as he, at least attempting to circle around to his back when Mali engaged their opponent head-on. 

Once the four of them seemed to find a rhythm together, they wore the Knight down, but when he had for a second time managed to beat Arlo and Sam to the ground and turned to face down Mali and Liz like they were next to nothing, Arlo had been forced to watch half in horror half in awe when he couldn’t get his feet back under him as Mali and Liz moved together in their assault against the enemy. 

Liz stood toe-to-toe with him, making sure to keep his sword engaged as much as possible to allow Mali the chance to step in and out of the Builder's stance and try and land hits of her own.

It wasn’t long before things started to turn south for them, the pair still not enough even when joining forces to truly do more than paltry damage to the well-armored foe. 

The first indication of trouble came when the Knight’s sword thrust past Liz’s defenses and pierced deep into one side of her torso, though it left him open to Mali’s responding combo that drove him off of her. When a one-two combo of his own to Mali landed a hit that audibly knocked the wind from her lungs just as Arlo knew, struggling to his feet, he would be too late to stop the third strike, Liz was there somehow, shirt stained with blood and sticking to her side, but with a face etched deep with determination as her arms shook beneath the strength of the blow, but managed to catch and prevent what could have been a devastating slash to Mali’s person.

By the time Sam and Arlo managed to run forward again, more desperate now, even Mali had been scathed several times by the Knight’s blade, and surface wounds would add up if they couldn’t manage to take him down soon.

Thinking back, he remembered Liz rejoining their efforts even after he and Sam blew past her to try and take her place, though he didn’t know how she managed, her wound still fresh and the scent of it filling his lungs and beginning to make him even angrier with himself.

That’s when it happened. 

That’s when the Knight had made it obvious he would take his leave, Arlo had spurred him on, dashing forward to prevent it, only to have Liz there somehow, tiny, injured Liz shouldering him out of harm’s way, holding back the Knight’s massive swing with her blade even as the Rogue Knight bore down on her with all his strength and she cried out as his sword-edge started to bite into her shoulder, barely managing to throw him off balance enough to get herself free and make a responding thrust. 

Which he side-stepped. 

The next moments Arlo could replay back with perfect recollection: the right hook that sent Liz flying towards the wall, the left arm raising and Arlo hearing more than one scream of rage, more than just his own, as the device on the Knight’s wrist released a second pulse of energy of the same ilk that had knocked their pseudo-All-Source’s head from its shoulders, but this time in a direction that struck Liz in mid-air and slammed her into the wall so hard she left a dent before gravity brought her limp figure crashing to the floor. 

A sudden burst of smoke hid the Knight from view even as the other three sought to engage him again. 

He was gone before they could so much as manage another swing.

Arlo let out a shuddering breath and blinked himself back into the clinic.

“I’m not sure why she hasn’t woken up yet.” Dr. Xu admitted to him earlier. “Without knowing exactly what the Knight blasted her with... Well, her condition is stable at present, so I don’t want to try anything drastic just yet. Let’s see what time does for her recovery first.”

The rest of the day after her unconscious collapse was a blur. 

Mali ordering him to carry Liz as she and Sam ran him out of the ruins, back to the lift, and into town. 

Sam leading him at their dead run up the hill to Dr. Xu’s clinic as Mali rushed to tell the Mayor what had happened. 

Sam ordering him to _ “Stay put, dammit. If she wakes up and you’re not here, you’ll never forgive yourself,” _as she went to join Mali, knowing by the look on his face alone that for now he was useless. 

_Useless. _

Useless in a fight. Useless at protecting the harbor. 

_ **Useless. ** _

Useless as he paced the room while Dr. Xu and Phyllis tended to Liz’s wounds. Useless when Sam came back to tell him Mali had left, and that she and Remington would be taking shifts guarding the Research Center for now and _ “Hell, no, you put that ass right back in that seat and you sit there and promise me you’ll be the first thing she sees, Captain, or I swear to god I will tie you to that thing so tight even **she** won’t be able to get you free, you hear me?” _

The breath that huffed past his lips at the memory was the closest thing to a laugh he figured he would get given the circumstances. 

Arlo pushed himself up out of the chair so he could pace the room, unwilling to leave Liz, but unable to sit still any longer, continuing in his mind to play back everything that had gone wrong, how it was all _his_ fault, and had he just-

A rustle of sheets and a cry of pain had Arlo whipping back around and rushing over to Liz, sitting up but in obvious discomfort, bent over and holding her side where under the thin gown that had been pulled over her head once her wounds were dressed, a set of bandages were circling her ribs.

“Easy, tiger.” Arlo murmured, reaching out to her but so unsure as to what she might need.

Her eyes were clear and coherent at least as she blinked over at him.

“Arlo!” She cried and threw her arms around him as best she could while he stood there at first positive he did not deserve such affection, but relenting when he felt her sob his name against him this time.

“You’re alright. Shh, it’s okay. I’m here.” He wrapped his arms gently around her and rested his cheek to the top of her head where she had it buried in his chest.

“A-Arlo, I was so afraid. I-I thought-”

“Everything’s fine, darling. You were wonderful. I-” _I-_ He squeezed his eyes shut as he gripped her tighter for a moment and heard her sniffle a little._ I’m such an idiot. _“I’m so sorry.” He said very quietly.

“I thought I was going to lose you.” She whispered, “I’d never been so scared in my entire life.”

Arlo couldn’t think of anything to say to comfort her, so he just reached up and held her head against him, his other hand rubbing gently up and down her back, feeling the bandages and constantly being reminded through them of all the things he attributed to being one of the many new checkmarks on his list of failures.

“I’m just glad you’re alive.” He murmured against her hair, planting a kiss there.

“Arlo...” 

She shuffled around and he released her only to have her grab his hands in her own as she looked into his eyes.

“Arlo, marry me.”

Too stunned for words, knowing without a doubt he had heard exactly what he thought he just heard, Arlo blinked down at her, his eyebrows instantly knotted together as if he couldn’t comprehend her statement.

She just searched his eyes for an answer, and before she could speak up again, he replied.

“What.” He answered flatly, notions of improbabilities darting through his head faster than he could stop them.

Liz’s stare was so intense he couldn’t look away, caught in her gaze. 

“Losing you would have been the worst thing that’s ever happened to me. And, and all I could think about during that fight was how...was how this was it. This is what finally takes us down. And how much I didn’t want that to happen. How I didn’t want to lose you.”

She went on, “I’ve never felt that before, Arlo. Death...death has never scared me, I don’t think it ever will, but...but I never wanted so desperately to _live_ before like I did when that guy started attacking us. When the four of us working together couldn’t even take him. And-and, who knows! Maybe, maybe he’ll come back tomorrow and kill us all-”

“Liz-”

She squeezed his hands and shook her head at him, hearing the tone of his voice and how he had to be in the depths of despair and she didn’t want him to fall to it. And so kept talking, “-and if he does, I don’t want to die with a single regret to my name and right now not ever having been married to you would have been the biggest regret of my entire life. So...please...will you marry me?”

Arlo’s face couldn’t manage to express the tirade of emotions he felt coursing through him, his heart feeling as if it might swell up so big as to burst through his ribcage, and at the same time battling this overwhelming sense of profound failure at having done a single bit of good-

He finally broke his gaze away from her, and said very quietly, “I don’t deserve such happiness.”

When his grip on her hands loosened, she tightened hers again.

“Why not?” She demanded almost aggressively, drawing Arlo’s gaze back to hers with her vehemence. 

His eyes darted away from her, lowering to the floor, “Because-”

“Because you think you failed somehow? Because you were a little cocky?”

He opened his mouth to insist he was exceptionally cocky, but she interrupted him.

“We were _all_ cocky, Arlo. Even Mali, and you’d think she would know better. Why on earth did _any_ of us think a silly little trap like that was going to work? Who _else_ besides someone powerful was going to want a chance at the All-Source?”

“Yeah, but I-I mean, look at you.” His face scrunched up and he held her hands tighter as tears started gathering in the corners of his eyes, “You got hurt because of _me._ Because of my big mouth.”

“And what was I supposed to do, let him lop your arrogant head off?” She gave him a cheeky grin and broke the tension as he scoffed a little and looked away again.

“Maybe.”

“Hey,” She moved their hands a bit, trying to get him to look at her. 

_“Hey,”_ Liz said more gently, letting go of one of his hands to reach up and rest her hand against his cheek. “Blaming yourself for something you can’t change is just spinning wheels, yeah?”

She smiled when he leaned into her touch, though he still wasn’t looking at her.

“Figure out what you can do better next time, strive to do it, but let the rest of it go.”

He let out a breath and his shoulders sagged.

“Promise?” She hadn’t looked away from his face.

“I...I guess.” He mumbled.

“Promise me.”

He nodded.

“Say it like you mean it.”

“I promise.”

“Promise me you’ll let it go.”

“I promise I’ll let it go.”

“Promise me we’ll get married tomorrow.”

“I _promise_, okay?”

Arlo blinked, and then snapped his gaze back to Liz, who had an exceptionally smug look on her face.

“You mean it?”

He opened his mouth like he wanted to deny it and just let out a long sigh, lips twitching ever so slightly.

“What on earth am I going to do with you?”

“Marry me, I hope.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the kudos and comments, dear readers. I'm glad you're enjoying my self-indulgent, silly little story~<3


	14. Arlo: Married (Rated: E)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Arlo and Liz finally have time to themselves...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is rated E for Explicit Sexual Content.

Arlo and Liz stood together just a few feet from the door of the church, Arlo’s arm thrown about Liz’s shoulders and holding her against his side as they laughed and talked with all the friends who had come to attend the ceremony Minister Lee had just finished.

“-and if you so much as set _foot_ inside the Civil Corps building tomorrow, I will personally kick your ass.” Remington was telling him with a wide smile.

“And _I’ll_ do it if you’re there the day after _that_, sir.” Sam slugged him on the arm. “You deserve at least two days off for all the running around you guys have been doing.”

“Guys, our forces are already spread so thin, and the Rogue Knight-” Arlo began to argue before Remington held up a hand.

“Look. Will it make you feel better if we promise to tell you every little detail about how fascinating standing in front of the Research Center for hours and hours on end is?”

“Don’t worry so much, Arlo.” Sam insisted, “We’ll be fine. And _you_ deserve a break.”

“Guys-”

Django burst out from the church doors with a few other Portians in his wake and he wrapped his arms about the newlyweds and stuck his head between them, “I’m hosting the reception right now and you all can’t change my mind! Let’s get down there!” He exclaimed joyously, the others cheering as they all started the walk down the hill towards the cafe, Liz insisting he didn’t have to do it and Django waving off any such words.

“It’s the least I can do. Honestly, we could do with a celebration of some sort around these parts lately, and you two are the perfect excuse for it.” He gave them a wink.

If anyone hadn’t been able to make it to the ceremony, they certainly showed up at Django’s as word spread around town the man was serving free food and drink for all comers in a party for the pair and soon the tavern was full of well-wishers and smiling faces and happy stomachs full of the wonderful dishes Django served all evening.

Eventually, much to their surprise, Liz and Arlo found themselves being discreetly ushered out the door by a rather giggly Sam and Remington, the latter pair perhaps more drunk than they initially intended to get.

“Go, _go!_” Sam urged, pushing them out onto the lamp-lit street before anyone could notice they’d left.

“Two days!” Remington whispered fiercely, pointing at Arlo, “Or I’m kicking your ass!”

“Alright, alright, geez.” Arlo held his hands out in defeat, but then pointed the sniggering pair towards the door, “Get back inside and sober up a bit, you two. Otherwise I won’t feel comfortable trusting your capacity to patrol Portia without me.”

Remington chuckled and turned to escort Sam back inside.

She paused for a second and looked between Arlo and Liz.

“It’s good to see you so happy.” She said with a lucid smile before Remi disappeared beyond the threshold with her in tow.

The pair stood in the silent street for a second before looking at one another and quickly trying to stifle their laughter before they gave their position away to anyone inside.

“I don’t know what’s gotten into them.” Arlo chuckled.

“They’re right, though.” Liz nudged her shoulder against his side, “You deserve a break every now and then.”

“Me?” He threw his arm over her shoulders again to pull her snuggly against his side and began steering them in the direction of her workshop. “You work twice as hard as I do.”

“Now that’s definitely not true.”

“It is, or I wouldn’t have to be asking you to train me.” He replied pointedly.

“Being a Builder is _way_ different from being a part of the Civil Corps.”

“Which is why I’m asking you to train me.”

Liz half-heartedly huffed and Arlo laughed and kissed her head.

When they reached her door, Liz made no hesitation in opening it and stepping inside, Arlo leaning against the doorframe.

“You want me to come tuck you in?”

Liz turned and gave him the most confused look, seeing in his face how he absolutely meant it, and by proxy how he, whether intentionally or not, didn’t mean to stay.

“Arlo...I mean, I _guess_ it doesn’t matter to me, but you know you’re welcome to live here, right?” She tilted her head at him, “We’re...married, after all, and I get the feeling we might prefer life on the _outskirts_ of town than in the heart of it.” For poor Remi’s sake, if nothing else, Liz thought.

He blinked at her, “Oh...oh _shit_, I-” He stood up from the doorway and stared at her, “I hadn’t even thought- Liz, I’m such a dumbass.”

“This is news?”

_“You...”_ He narrowed his eyes at her playfully and shook his head a little, “_Now_ I get what Remi was saying, I-” He let out a self-conscious laugh as Liz finally reached out and pulled him inside the house, then closed the door behind him. “I genuinely wasn’t even thinking about- This _was_ kind of short notice after all and-”

_He still doesn’t get it. _Liz stretched up to get his face down so she could kiss him, shutting him up for a moment.

She wondered how long it would take it to dawn on him.

He hummed against her lips, opening his eyes again when she pulled away faster than he would have liked.

“I doubt there’s anything you’ll need from the Civil Corps for the next couple of days, unless you’re just wanting a good scolding, but we can get your things after that and bring them here if you want.”

He considered it and answered, “I might need a change of clothes before then,” only to have Liz give him a look that made his heart skip a beat.

If nothing else, she was done with his thick skull.

“I don’t expect you to be wearing much of anything while you’re here, _Captain._”

His mouth had dropped open and he let out what Liz considered, quite frankly, to be the most adorable little, “Oh. _Oh._” As the _actual_ realization of his Civil Corps’ intentions the entire day suddenly dawned on him, including the conspiratory giggling they were doing as they shoved himself and Liz away from Django’s.

Arlo’s gaze focused back in on Liz and he blinked, suddenly very aware of her hands clasped together behind his neck and his hands resting just above her hips.

“I am _so_ sorry that I am _so_ dumb.” He apologized fervently.

“You have two whole days to make it up to me.” She murmured between them with a wicked grin.

“That is not a lot of time,” He surprised her with how easily he hoisted her off her feet and suddenly had her against him, moving through the room, “So I’m really thinking I should get started now.”

“I completely agree.” Liz wrapped her legs around him and held his face in her hands as she began kissing him.

It wasn’t as if there hadn’t been moments since they started dating at the end of Winter where things had grown heated between them, but one way or another they always managed to get interrupted before tender embraces and passionate kisses could truly blossom into something more. But in any case, the two of them had genuinely been kept so busy that any alone time away from prying eyes more often than not devolved into stolen naps in each other’s arms, sweet and utterly relaxing, but chaste.

With the promise of ample time alone and unbothered, invigorated by the day’s events, they finally had room to enjoy one another.

Liz’s kisses eventually left Arlo’s lips and he might have protested if she hadn’t immediately began planting them elsewhere along his face and jaw and neck, searching for those places where he might catch his breath or otherwise utter some sound. He thought he heard her managing to kick off her shoes somewhere to the floor as he moved through the house, but he didn’t care enough to look, likewise leaving a path of fire upon whatever bits of skin he could find.

Her hands similarly left his cheeks, then, only to begin deftly working at removing whatever clothing she could reach from her position, though she gave up after only getting his jacket unzipped part way, though it was far enough to slip her hands beneath the collar of his shirt before sliding her hands to the back of his neck and burying themselves into his hair as she trailed kisses back to his lips again.

Arlo felt more than heard her make some sound against his neck when her fingers started smoothing across what of his shoulders she could reach, and he adjusted his hold so he had one arm underneath her holding her up, freeing the other to work similarly at her outfit as he kept one brain cell on the task of making it to the bedside.

Stepping out of his own shoes and socks at the last, Arlo gave up on actually removing any of her clothes until he climbed up on the bed and plopped her down underneath him, leaning over her to actually begin returning the kisses she’d be giving him across her cheeks and neck while he lifted her hips up with the arm still beneath her, the other hand making quick work of undoing button and zipper and suddenly sliding her pants off completely and taking her socks with them in the same motion to be discarded on the floor with her help as she did one final shimmy of her ankle in the midst of getting his jacket open.

They had done little in the way of procuring what some might consider appropriately dressy clothing for the day, much to Carol’s chagrin.

When Arlo then bent over her waist, his hand moving up her side to get to her skin as he planted more kisses across her stomach, Liz wriggled a little beneath him and then had her shirt off over her head and cast off the bedside, which Arlo responded to by trailing his lips up her body all the way to her neck until she let out a pleasant gasp at his gently searching teeth and tongue.

Feeling Liz toss away his kerchief and her hands leave his neck to get his shirt untucked, he pulled back far enough to grin at her and hastily throw the jacket and shoulder-belts aside he’d put on that morning out of habit and tug the shirt off over his head even as he felt her palms slide up his torso following its departure as she could while he leaned back down, her hands stopping at his chest to press into his skin. As he bared his torso completely, she had made a sound he recognized as similar to the one from the moment before when she got her hands beneath his collar earlier and his grin widened as he bent over to kiss her.

He meant to make it brief, to say something to her, but he forgot all about any of it when her hands gripped at the tops of his shoulders when he acted like he might leave her as her tongue slid past his lips. Arlo moaned against her as he responded in kind, one arm propping himself up above her as the other snaked up her stomach to knead at her breast over the bra she still wore.

After they came up for air, parting far enough for her to slip the bra off where he had reached behind her and gotten it free, Arlo gathered the belts at his waist she’d freed him of in the meantime and threw them to clatter together somewhere as he quickly finished her attempts to rid him of his jeans so he could get his mouth to her chest the moment it was unclothed.

“Oh, _Arlo._”

As if he wasn’t already hard enough and feeling tight across his boxer shorts, as Arlo went to suck on the nipple he’d been teasing, he felt himself straining against the last bit of clothing he still had on as his name all but groaned past Liz’s lips. After blowing cool air over the glistening areola, the hand that had been smoothing itself back and forth over her stomach slipped lower.

Liz wanted nothing more than for Arlo’s hand to make it all the way down to where she felt she had already grown especially wet in such a short amount of time, but when he stopped and she managed to blink up at him and actually return to the room a little, she knew it was her questioning expression mixed with her blatant gaze sweeping down his body that made his eyebrow quirk at her with a smile she found could easily drive her wild.

“Now, look here, _missy._” He leaned down closer to her face, having seen her gaze darken a little with lust in response to his leering one. Arlo let his hand slide over the top of her hip to squeeze gently at her inner thigh, watching her shift a little, nearly a squirm.

Reaching up between them, Liz needed to be in contact with more of him, running her hands over the deeply sculpted muscles of his torso she knew existed but hadn’t _seen_ before and letting out a breath that managed to fully encompass her desire of him in that moment.

“I want to do so many things to you.” Arlo grazed his nose against her cheek as that same hand moved between her thighs to cup over her. “But if I ever do something you don’t like,” He kissed the place where his nose had been tenderly, before pulling away to look into her eyes again, “Please tell me.” He smiled a little as she locked gazes with him and he watched her expression soften a little. “I won’t know if you never say anything, yeah?”

Her hands had been shifting over his shoulders and came together at his neck and she nodded.

“But you have to promise me the same.” She murmured, lifting herself up so she could sweetly meet his lips with her own briefly before resting back against the bedcovers and continuing to look up at him.

“Deal.” He grinned wickedly and in the next moment slid fingers beneath her last bit of clothing to the music of her crying out in pleasant surprise, finding her already slick and warm and watching her bite her lower lip in response to his attentions even while her hips bucked a little against his searching fingers.

In an attempt to forestall himself from just ripping apart what remained of their clothes and fucking her brains out, Arlo bent lower and took her earlobe between his teeth as he slid a finger slowly inside of her.

“Ar-_lo_...” The last bit of his name dripped over her lips as a low moan as Liz felt him make as if to continue this slow torture.

She reached down to run her fingers up the arm near her legs and turned her head to open her eyes and managed to pant out, “Arlo...Arlo, I _swear_ if you don’t...” Her hand moved to tug at his boxers, “-if you don’t just fuck me _ right goddamn now_, I’m going to lose my mind.”

Arlo paused, perhaps a little startled at her statement, and moved up to blink down at her once until her hand slid down beneath his boxer shorts and she suddenly had a hold of him.

“Oh _shit_...” His eyes fluttered a little.

He _knew_ he was hard, but feeling her fingers wrap around his dick made the sensation all the more prominent and she got a second groan from him when her palm smoothed up and down once.

Liz had propped herself up on an elbow to get closer to his face and murmur, “I am not opposed to taking our sweet time-” She stroked at him again and felt him let out a shaky breath against her skin as she gently nibbled at the underside of his jaw, “_-later_. Right now, I want nothing more than for you to fuck-” She bit his jaw briefly near his ear, “-my brains-” She kissed his cheek just above that and moved to whisper fiercely into his ear at the last, “-_out,_” before biting more insistently at his ear.

She felt him tremble once before all but growling at her and in seconds the both of them were completely naked, Arlo pushing Liz back down beneath him.

It took everything Arlo had not to just force himself inside her, maintaining enough of himself to know he wasn’t as of yet familiar with their joined anatomy to not have to reach down and guide them together, especially this first time. He genuinely didn’t want to hurt her.

Liz wrapped one hand around the back of his neck and pulled his face closer and soon their deepening kisses were punctuated by the sounds of their bodies meeting together and the accompanying noises of their pleasure occasionally interrupting the meeting of their lips.

After getting her properly beneath him, the hand that wasn’t holding most of Arlo’s weight snaked up and found her free hand and entangled their fingers together somewhere up near her head. Liz planted her feet on the bed as he thrust himself into her at a grueling pace, knees bent on either side of him opening herself further and letting him drive deeper in a way that coupled with the roll of her hips meeting him truly did leave their minds full of nothing but the sensations of their flesh.

To say he was fervently trying to satisfy this sudden, insatiable need he had did not mean Arlo wanted to finish before she might take him over the edge with her, so he endeavored to follow the pitch of her cries and succeeded at last in the quivering of her muscles around him until he joined her and eventually his final, erratic jerks actually came to a stop and he panted above her.

She kissed him, then. Gathered her brain cells back to their rightful places and held his face in her hands and kissed him, their foreheads meeting after as they sat together for several moments and waited for their breath to catch up.

“_God,_ I love you.” Arlo finally murmured against her skin, nuzzling his face to hers before opening his eyes and planting a kiss on her glistening cheek.

“Mm, I love _you._” She replied, letting him pull her up against him as he fell onto the bed next to her and wrapped his arms around her.

Her bare chest being pressed against his was the most satisfying feeling even as he bent his head down and kissed her gently. Liz tangled their legs together, keen even now of the solid feeling of his muscles as they settled together on top of the bed.

“I _knew_ you were fit, but _damn_ it’s hot.” She grinned up at him and wiggled a little, getting one of her hands trapped between them free so she could run it down his side and brush her fingers across his narrow hips. He let out a laugh in response even as he reached between them to take one of her breasts in his hand and squeeze it, getting a gentle noise from her in return as he continued kneading at it.

“Mm, Lizzie, your skin is so soft.” He murmured back to her, watching her eyes flutter a little as he did reached down past her waist with the arm beneath her side to grab ahold of her rear.

He wanted to hear more of those delicious sounds she could make, able to better ignore this time the already slowly growing response building up at her tones.

It wasn’t that Liz didn’t feel satisfied. He’d already taken care of that for both of them. But she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t wanted Arlo’s hands all over her for days now, ever since she realized she actually had a chance of being with him, really. She craved the closeness that as of yet they hadn’t had a chance to experience much. 

Between Mali showing up and engaging both of them in some way or another and her gratefulness for what little time they _had_ been able to spend in one another’s arms before guilt would take one or the other, finally having Arlo in her bed, in _their_ bed, all to herself and giving her the sort of attention she had been coveting from him…

Suffice it to say it did not surprise her that even now he could pull worshipful moans past her lips while she lay next to him, and could remember little else but the feeling of his arms embracing her, his warm hands moving over her.

Lucky for her, he seemed to find her devotion to leave him in awe.

“_Damn_ that’s hot.” He breathed against her neck as she let his name slip over her tongue again, thinking he likely hadn’t encountered something this level of _erotic_ for him in a very long time.

Arlo went back to kissing her neck, her arms thrown about his and her mouth near his ear where he could hear every little noise she made. His grip on her one ass cheek let him freely slide a couple of fingers in and out of her, her leg hiked up over his hip and his other arm resting over it to reach beneath.

He moved much slower this time, savoring the slick feeling of her folds that he couldn’t see giving way to his entry and letting out a sound or two himself when she tightened those muscles around his fingers more than once, just imagining the way he earlier penetrated inside her soft depths and how it felt to have her accepting him so readily.

Liz felt her hips press against Arlo with surprise when he started to stimulate the little nub above her entrance, and she stammered out his name again when he continued to tortuously keep his pace while he did so.

“_Ah-_ Arlo, I can’t-ah!”

Arlo held her tightly as she gripped at his shoulders and gave a shuddering cry of release before relaxing and panting into his ear again.

He grinned as he thrust his fingers abruptly further one last time and felt her tense again and this time he heard her say his name in a hiss.

“Sorry, sorry.” He placated, kissing at her skin.

“No, you’re not.” She mumbled, smile dancing across her features as he pulled away from her to check if she was actually upset.

“Well, maybe a little bit.”

“Mm.” She seemed skeptical, starting to smooth her hands over his body again.

Before she could get terribly far, Arlo had her all at once caught up in a hug and he buried his face in the side of her neck and took a deep breath as she wrapped her arms tightly around him in response and gave a gentle squeeze.

“I’m _so_ glad I’m not allowed to go to work tomorrow.” He said against her.

Liz just chuckled and began kissing at his cheek, working her way slowly down the side of his face to his neck.

“Me too.” She breathed over him, sending tingles all across the back of his neck and shooting pleasantly down his arms.

Arlo closed his eyes so he could feel each sensation of Liz drawing her lips together over his skin, shifting a little as she slipped down past his collar bone and kept going.

“I love you, Lizzie.” He murmured, opening his eyes to watch now as she had her hands at his hips and her kisses continuing to trail farther and farther down his torso without indication of stopping.

“I love you too, Arlo.”


	15. Gust: Painting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Gust paints a portrait...

The gentle lapping of the waves upon the riverbank only served to complement the soft strokes of brush to canvas.

Gust couldn’t have asked for a more perfect evening.

The sun cast brilliant hues of reds, oranges, yellows, and blues against the distant horizon, shading the harbor in exquisite fashion and reflecting over Starlight Island off in the background to his left with a splendor that only served to reinforce its well-earned designation

He stood quietly at his easel, settled firmly into the sand just beyond where the dirt of the grassy plains gave way to the shore. The air of the season had finally bloomed into full Spring, no longer holding the lingering bite of Winter’s wicked teeth, and the breeze carried with it not only a comforting warmth around the artist’s shoulders, but the scents of the soft grass beneath his shoes, the bark of the tree nearby, the kiss of salt and fish from the harbor across the way, and, every so often, when it would caress across his face and neck just right, the sweet, modest fragrance of a delicate hibiscus flower, wafting to him from the woman sitting calmly on his stool just a few feet in front of him.

To be perfectly honest, Gust had completely expected Elizabeth to no longer speak to him unless necessary once she and Arlo were dating. And even less so once they were married.

An expectation she completely circumnavigated on both counts, once again forcing Gust to reflect on his own thoughts and why exactly he had thought it was something she would do.

Perhaps because if he had been in Arlo’s shoes, he might have viewed any time she spent with the redhead with jealousy. And why should it? If they were married, was that expression of devotion alone not enough? Would he have been too insecure, maybe too untrusting of the autonomy of his own _wife_ for heaven’s sake? To the point that his demands of their monogamy would have extended to include expecting her to cast off all friendship, all contact with others just because his own fragile ego couldn’t have handled the thought of her interacting with anyone but him?

And would he have held himself to the same standard?

Not that he had many people he actually talked to himself, but the principle of the matter still stood. Would he have grown envious of the vast network of people upon which she had come to rely? Expecting her to do as he likely would have and burden her alone with the task of being everything for him at all times?

The days he’d spent in turmoil with himself, agonizing over this somewhat darker part of him he hadn’t realized existed, were punctuated by Liz’s shining countenance, even as he scrutinized her actions as if they would reveal to him the nature of his own feelings.

She treated him no different than before. No different than she ever did anyone else once she got to know them, save perhaps the manner in which she engaged with Arlo, for obvious reasons.

She was still free with her hugs, her inquiries, her conversation. And not just with him, but truly with everyone she had come to know in their little town, smothering the youngest children with affectionate kisses at which they would giggle with delight upon being scooped into her arms, reaching out to pat Tody on the arm in comfort when Gust knew she had sought the fisherman out to speak with him about the incident at the harbor if he wanted, or gently tapping Sam on the arm with a playful fist when the other would tease her.

He also saw the new look in her eyes when she would spot Arlo making his patrols about town, and in those moments Gust would always quickly look away before the seeds of longing could take root and strangle his heart with their ache.

He would be lying if he said there wasn’t a small part of him that wished it was _him_ she would cast her gaze across like that, a sultry, discrete mix of happiness and secrets he had only witnessed by accident one time while walking Ginger to the riverbank when his sister had stopped to talk to the Builder, but now found himself keenly aware of any time she was within his sights.

“Something wrong, Gust?”

Gust blinked and realized he’d been staring at the canvas lost in his thoughts. He tried to pretend his brush had not just been hovering over a swathe of indigo and midnight blue and made a faux stroking motion before returning the brush to the palette in his other hand to moisten the bristles with paint once more.

“Hum?”

Liz smiled and looked back forward in the angle like he’d positioned her earlier.

“You stopped.” She glanced over at him, but otherwise remained posed. “I thought something was wrong.”

“If you keep moving, this will just take that much longer.”

“Is that a promise?” She twisted her shoulders to face him and wriggled in place a bit, earning herself a look from him she knew to be not nearly as threatening as he wished, his eyes in contrast dancing with good humor and the edge of his lips fighting against a smile on the one side.

He raised an eyebrow at her and she stopped, coughing into her hand a little before returning her gaze to Amber Island off to his far left.

“Not to mention the fact that the colors of the sunset will only stay kind to my palette as I’ve prepared it for so long.”

“Well, then, for the sake of your palette, I will endeavor to remain still.”

_That_ earned her a breath of scoffing laughter and when his lips came together again, they were unmistakably settled into a small smile Liz noticed out of the corner of her eye.

She tried not to shift again, though she desperately wanted to tug at one of the white, sheer sleeves of the flowing dress Ginger had offered on her arrival to the house earlier in the evening after agreeing to sit for Gust’s request when the blonde finally asked her if she would be willing to model for him a day or two before.

The simple cuff was making the top of her hand itch. 

Liz didn’t typically wear dresses, but after having accurately assessed that she was comparable in size to Ginger, Gust’s sweet sister had insisted she wear this particular one for the portrait.

And after seeing her _in_ the gown, Ginger’s eyes lit up in a way that left Liz unable to deny the woman subsequently deciding the dress was now Liz’s, in spite of Liz’s protests to the contrary.

Liz had mentioned to Arlo not the week prior that she thought Gust desired to paint her picture and the Captain expressed how he felt the idea to be wonderful.

“If _I_ could do you justice, I’d make you pose naked on our bed any moment I could.” He’d teased, pulling her up against him at the time and leaning down towards her face. “And revel in recreating all the curves of your lovely body.”

“_You_ wouldn’t be able to manage setting up an easel before you’d come make love to me, much less finish an entire painting as such.” She’d taunted right back, her eyes narrowed with sensuous thoughts of the activities that would follow. “And in either case, I’m positive _that_ sort of portrait isn’t what Gust has in mind.”

“Shame.” He murmured low between them, planting a single, slow kiss at the edge of her ear that had sent goosebumps prickling down her arms, “I’ve seen his work. You’d be absolutely stunning.”

The sound of Gust turning to retrieve his jacket where he’d discarded it over the branch of the tree behind him brought Liz’s attention back to the present and she blinked questioningly in his direction.

“Is it finished?”

He nodded, standing back up and slipping the article of clothing back over his shoulders.

“Watercolors dry quickly, so we’ll be able to walk back to the house in a minute or two.”

After another beat of silence, she piped up again, “Can I look at it?”

Another nod, towards the easel, as he tended to his buttons.

Liz popped up from the stool and snuck around the edge of the canvas, Gust watching the fabric swishing pleasantly around her legs out of his peripheral vision before turning his eyes up to her face searching for her reaction as she skirted the edge of the easel to face the painting.

“Wow,” She breathed, Gust barely able to catch it as her back was to him now while staring at the work. “Is that really what I look like?”

Instead of the plain, albeit elegant, sheer white gown, Gust had emulated a sort of iridescence to the fabric that made it seem as if Liz was swathed in nothing short of a brilliant series of rainbows shimmering and flowing in a breeze like some sort of goddess of light seated at the threshold between deepening twilight and the shore, looking off towards Starlight Island with an expression Liz knew for certain she hadn’t been wearing, but thought fit perfectly: a longing perhaps reflecting that goddess’ desire to journey to the twinkling shores, but instead had to remain in the land of the sun.

“No. You’re much prettier than that.” Gust asserted in his usual blunt fashion as he moved past her to fetch the stool and bring it over to the more stable dirt.

“Gust, it’s so beautiful though!” Liz almost whispered in a sort of low reverence, “I don’t know a lot about it, but I know watercolors are so hard to use because once you start you can’t exactly stop your forward motion.”

He paused just behind her, tilting his head a little as he swept his eyes across the canvas and spotted each and every inconsistency or imperfection among the strokes.

“It’s not perfect.”

“Well, I’m not perfect either.” She immediately counted, reaching to gingerly remove the canvas from the easel when he nodded his head towards it for her to take so he could begin gathering the painting accoutrements together and collapse the easel. “I think it’s wonderful.”

“It isn’t the worst first attempt I’ve ever done.” He allowed.

“It’s the best first attempt I’ve ever seen.”

“How many have you seen?”

“Just this one.”

“Of course.”


	16. Gust and Arlo: Hot Springs Retreat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Gust overhears a conversation between Captain and Builder...

The steam of the warm water around the gently drifting tub curled with lazy ease into the dark night sky, clear and twinkling merrily with distant stars.

Gust leaned his head back against the rim of the large, rubber, pool-like floating vat his old man had requested be implemented into the Hot Springs Retreat and let out a quiet sigh from his nose, slipping far enough into the warm water that it lapped at his bare neck, his hair bundled up together somewhere at the back of his head to avoid being in danger of touching the water altogether.

Not exactly planning for his day to end this way, when Sam and Liz appeared at the Mayor’s doorstep that afternoon shortly following lunch, the pair had excitedly invited Ginger and Gust to make the trek over to the new Hot Springs Retreat Liz had just finished helping Albert construct a couple days before.

Or rather, they had invited Ginger, saying Arlo would be there too. Ginger in turn insisted on Gust coming along and who was he to turn down her wishes?

His eyes opened a little at the sound of his sister’s light chuckle and he watched the interaction peppered by Sam’s exaggerated gesticulations on Ginger’s other side as the Civil Corps member extrapolated on some story or another that Gust felt certain was likely half-truths meant to fully entertain.

The floating vat anchored to the mini-dock jutting out over the water meant a safe-as-possible environment that allowed Ginger to visit the retreat without having to be concerned for her strength in using the hot springs itself, and was large enough for multiple Portians to visit at the same time if they wished.

Gust’s gaze discreetly drifted from the storytelling directly to his left to the couple situated across from the ladder where Sam and Gust had helped make sure Ginger made it down into the tub safely and subsequently remained near for her sake when it came time to exit.

Liz seemed in a similar state as himself, her chin nearly touching the water, eyes partially or completely closed and likely intent on the soothing waters moving across her skin and easing any sore muscles she might have.

Next to her, Arlo’s back glistened likely in both sweat as well as from the waters he had been in moments prior, looking up at the sky with his arms folded together on the edge of the slowly rocking tub taking a breath of peaceful night air.

Gust blinked a little and noticed an inconsistency across Arlo’s skin, the telltale indication of a piercing hit taken in a fight that healed over as a whiter reformation of what had been. 

And once he caught sight of the one, he realized there were more, criss-crossing over the parts of the Captain’s body he could see, some obviously fresher markings in contrast to the duller, less visible ones, and differing shapes and sizes indicative of variations in the types of injuries.

He’d never considered before the prices paid for Portia’s continued protection.

“You know, I’ve been thinking a lot about our fight with the Rogue Knight.”

Gust suddenly closed his eyes like he’d been caught frowning at the sight of the other, as if it mattered that he heard Arlo clear enough even at this distance.

“Oh?”

Liz’s answer was delayed, a pause of silence growing between the statements Gust attributed to the heavy laziness the water of the hot springs induced.

In kind, Arlo’s continuation of the discussion slowly murmured towards Gust’s ears now that the architect had resigned himself to eavesdropping on the significantly more interesting conversation happening between Captain and Builder.

“If I could just get my hands on some of that corrupted tech, I feel like it’d even the odds.”

Liz opened her eyes and blinked, glancing over at Arlo and seeing one of his fists clenching in determination.

She opened her mouth as if to respond and closed it again, a deep frown coloring her brow with a cloud of thought.

When she spoke again, she glanced at him and seemed to pick her words carefully.

“Do you truly believe the tech he used is what determined the outcome of our battle?”

“Yes.” He answered immediately, giving a curt nod to punctuate it.

“Arlo...” She seemed to plead, half admonishing.

“He took you out with it in _one hit,_ Lizzie.” He turned to stare at her and Liz caught the intensity behind the sharp blue gaze before she even flicked her eyes in his direction again. “One. Hit.”

“I was careless.” She immediately countered.

“Ha!” His bark of laughter barely had an ounce of mirth in it, “_You? **Careless?**_ That’s bullshit and you know it.”

“Arlo, think about it.” The Builder began with exasperation, trying to get him to look at it differently, “If he truly thought we were an_ actual_ threat, what would have stopped him from _immediately_ using the wrist blaster on all of us?”

“Maybe it had to recharge.” Arlo shot back. “He shot the fake we planted out of frustration when he didn’t realize we were there.”

“He was _**toying**_ with us, Arlo!” Liz at least kept her voice low in respect for their other happily chatting company even as she all but hissed the facts between partially clenched teeth. “_Surely_ you realize that.”

Arlo’s mouth snapped shut and Liz could see his jaw flex.

Liz let out a quiet breath in an attempt to release the rest of any pent up emotions on the subject she might have.

“What would Minister Lee think if he heard you saying that sort of thing? What would _Nora_ think? Resurrecting that sort of technology, bringing it back into Portia is _exactly_ the kind of thing that goes against everything they stand for. Even _Merlin_ has questioned Ursula’s single-mindedness in retrieving the All-Source for the Council’s use, for heaven’s sake.” 

Gust quickly closed his eyes when he sensed Liz going to send a darting glance in his direction to see if he was listening, as if him being the Mayor’s son gave her pause enough to consider what might be seen as a somewhat treasonous stance on the researcher’s part.

Arlo had gone back to staring up at the sky, but he flashed a muted, if still roguish, grin her direction, “You remind me of her, you know.”

“Who, Merlin?” Liz blinked.

He shook his head, “No, Ursula.”

Gust watched from underneath his lashes as the clarification seemed to set a hunch in Liz’s shoulders as she looked down at the water.

“You’ve said so before.” She half-grumbled between barely parting lips.

“Have I?” Arlo raised a brow.

“Yes.”

Right after the meeting they’d all been called to once the Council Guard Captain had arrived, in fact.

“She’s smart and strong and driven and short-” He teased.

“-and cold and calculating and obstinate and rude.” Liz grumbled.

Arlo blinked at her in surprise, at a loss for words at first.

“Maybe she’s a little too serious for my tastes, but she’s just doing her job!” He argued.

“She’s blindly following orders without consideration for the long-reaching affects her efforts will have on the Alliance of Free Cities.” Liz said more sharply than she meant to, letting out another sigh before going on with a little less vehemence, “We’re trying to rebuild the world to be _better_ than we were before, not turn ourselves into another _Duvos._”

This time Liz caught Gust blatantly staring at her and aside from the small, reassuring smile of understanding and agreement he gave her, she comforted herself in the knowledge that it _did_ seem like Gale had been himself a least a little concerned from the get-go in regards to Ursula’s insistence they find the All-Source as quickly as possible, and maybe his son actually agreed with him on that particular subject.

Arlo grew quiet, looking up at the stars again.

“...I just want to be able to protect you. To protect everyone.” He finally said softly.

Liz let out a bit of a sigh, “I know, Red. I know.”

More silence.

Gust watched more secretively this time, seeing Liz reach for her side to hold it for a moment before letting her hand drop away again and he watched her ribs expand in a larger sigh of air that rippled the waters further.

As they began to settle once again, the frown of concentration Gust’s eyebrows had dipped into earlier deepened further when his sight zeroed in on what it was about Liz’s action that had caught his attention: her hand had been covering a scar of her own.

Respecting Liz too much to give her figure more than a passing glance when she and Arlo had entered the tub ahead of him earlier, the two-piece suit she wore left her stomach bare and with the water being exceptionally clear, Gust had little trouble seeing the prominent, almost angry looking former wound on display above her hip stretching up between the top and bottom of her swimsuit along the side of her torso, still that reddish purple color fresh scars sometimes had.

He narrowed his eyes, venturing to guess it was a “spoil” of the battle with the Rogue Knight, about which he had heard snippets here and there from other Portians.

_If that bastard shows his face in town, I’ll kick his ass._

Gust studied Liz’s face as she stared down at nothing.

_We still haven’t heard from Mali._

_Maybe it’s time dear old dad had a talk with her about his concerns regarding Ursula._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seriously though, Gust totally made approximately that statement in-game about beating up the Rogue Knight and I just sat there blinking at my screen. Like...no, Gust, just...no. XD


	17. Gust and Arlo: Celebration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Gust, Arlo, Liz, and the rest of the town enjoy their victory over the Rogue Knight...

Gust watched from the corner of the booth in the back of Django’s as the rest of the town threw back drinks and filled their bellies with warm food together after the day’s fiasco with the All-Source, the Watchmen, and the Rogue Knight.

His father had insisted on footing the bill for this “celebration,” and for once Gust didn’t disagree with his decision. While it was true enough individual members of the town had contributed greatly to rousting the robots, in the end it was Django himself who drove the Rogue Knight away, presumably for good if the so-called “Storm Knight” was to be trusted.

Glancing down to his left, Gust quietly eyed Elizabeth, whose head had come to rest against his arm some time ago. Her exhausted nap meant the two of them were largely unbothered in the midst of the party, a bubble of solitude Gust certainly didn’t mind as the relieved chaos of the interactions in the tavern gave them wide berth. He’d gotten a glance or two his direction, sure, but once others saw her asleep they would only smile and leave the pair be.

Ginger had been sitting with them until a few moments ago, Albert next to her before that. Now it seemed as if Albert and Antoine were discussing with Presley what Gust assumed was the state of the school and the gate, demolished by the All-Source in the final fight. And Ginger stood with those gathered around the Civil Corps, listening to all the tales being passed with rapt attention.

That group was all standing over near the bar with Toby in their midst, the other children excitedly speaking presumably about the destruction of the school, recounting Toby’s bravery in stealing the power cube from the All-Source as his mother half-worriedly half-proudly had her hands on his shoulders. Django handed Martha another drink of some kind and tousled the boy’s hair with a grin.

Gust let out a little breath.

To his knowledge, the story went something like “And Django valiantly stopped the Rogue Knight’s blade from striking true against Liz and he drove off the foe at the last.”

He believed it. Liz seemed pretty beat up, though she said Dr. Xu had already given her a once-over, just like he had everyone else standing around the pub.

“Want me to take her off your hands there, Gust?”

Gust blinked and saw Arlo slide into the booth on Liz’s other side, a stein in the Captain’s hand that he took a drink from as he looked out over the rest of the room.

“If you truly meant to, I somehow doubt you would have sat down and trapped me further.”

Arlo let out a chuckle at the candid reply and gave his wife a passing glance as his laughter seemed to stir her until she started to sit up.

“Oh, Gust, I’m so sorry.” She mumbled, reaching up to rub at her eyes.

Gust let out a soft, negatory sound and shook his head at her apology to dismiss its necessity.

The day’s events kept playing over and over again through Liz’s mind and the moment of rest had been no reprieve from it. 

Gathering at Ursula’s behest to make the trek to the All-Source. Sam showing up late but with news for Arlo that they just got a telegram from Mali: she’d been shot down by Sky Pirates and only just arrived at Atara, ousting a mole in the meantime. Arlo knowing ”Ursula” was really Second Captain Ms. Everglade of the Flying Shark Pirates.

_“Stanza. You know, lanky, black hair, reasonable fella.”_

Liz blinked and stared over at Arlo.

She hadn’t had a chance to hardly speak two words with him all day.

_“I don’t have a friend named Stanza.” _

“Something on my face, Lizzie?” Arlo turned to look down at her, giving her a little half-grin.

“You-” She seemed somewhat frustrated, pursing her lips.

He raised his eyebrows.

“You knew the _whole time,_ didn’t you?”

“Knew what?” He took a nonchalant sip of his drink, watching her over the rim.

“You-” She made a noise, “You _knew_ she wasn’t the Captain of the Council Guard.”

Arlo raised and lowered a shoulder, “I had my suspicions.”

“And you didn’t _say_ anything to me?”

“You didn’t ask.”

Liz took a breath as if she might get angry with him, but it puffed out of her chest along with any of her ire as she grumbled, “We really need to work on our communication skills.”

Arlo laughed.

“I _mean_ it, Arlo.” Liz reached over and lovingly tapped a fist into his arm he suddenly took in his hand and bent over to kiss before letting it go. “You went on and on about how she reminded you of me--”

“In all the best ways!”

“--and I didn’t even think for a _second_ you didn’t like her.”

“Liking her and suspecting her of being a Duvos spy are not mutually exclusive.”

Liz huffed out another breath, “You certainly had me fooled.”

“Did you really think I was that dense?”

Lucky for her, he was grinning at the prospect, but when she didn’t answer immediately, refusing to meet his eyes and turning a little pink, he put a hand up to his heart in mock distress as if he hadn’t expected her answer.

“Darling, I’m hurt. I may be a little thick-headed at times, but-”

“You asked her about this ‘Stanza’ guy you made up the very first time we worked together with her!”

His eyes twinkled, “Well, it didn’t exactly work, did it? She played the part of dismissive superior exquisitely.”

Liz held her face in her palm and let out another noise of consternation.

“I thought you were-”

“Being incompetant? Then I guess I did a decent job of it, hm?” He reached across his lap to poke her in the side.

After making a noise at his prod, she glared accusingly at him, “You could have _told_ me when we were at the Hot Springs that you _agreed_ with me, at least.”

He looked a bit more serious, then, “In front of Ginger? I mean I figured Gust here probably overheard some of the conversations Sam and I had with Gale, but if nothing else I didn’t want _her_ to have anything more to worry about than necessary.”

Gust blinked over at the Captain as if that had been the last thing he expected out of the redhead’s mouth.

“You could have told me when we got home.” Liz griped quietly between them.

“Honestly, I’d forgotten by then.” He admitted.

Seeing her pouting, Arlo threw an arm around her and hugged her to his side, pulling her close, “Oh, come on, grumpy-face.” He leaned down and rested his nose in her hair, “If I’d realized it would bother you so much, I would have said something sooner, you know that.”

Liz mumbled some kind of protest under her breath that neither of them could quite make out.

“Can’t you just admit I’m a _great_ actor and we leave it at that?”

She didn’t have to look up to know he had leaned back to grin down at her again.

“It just felt like you’d been lying to me, is all.” Liz protested louder this time, still not looking at him.

Arlo blinked down at her and his grip around her slackened a bit in surprise.

Gust watched as the Captain opened his mouth like he meant to say something in response.

“Hey, the heroic sleepy-head awakens!” Albert slid into the booth across from the trio, ignoring the look he got from Gust, who could smell the alcohol on his breath. “You’re missing out on the party, Lizzo! You know this is just as much in honor of _you_ as it is Django, right?”

“He’s not wrong, you know.” Remington did a similar maneuver except he managed to push Albert all the way over to make room for Tuss who slipped in across from Arlo.

“Remi, have you been over-exaggerating my contributions again?” Liz pinned the Civil Corps officer with a stare.

“I think he’s been understating them.” Tuss sniffed. “I didn’t see you rush towards Peach Plaza to pull the Mayor out of the way of the feet of one of The Watchmen myself, but-”

“And what about _you,_ huh?” Remington nudged Tuss with an arm, “I’d say freeing us to chase after those pirates was a pretty big deal.”

Tuss blinked at the praise and gave a crooked smile, “W-Well, I mean, I-I guess.”

“You know, Tuss...” Arlo drew everyone at the table’s attention as he considered the other man thoughtfully, filing away the conversation with Liz for the privacy of their home. He glanced at Remi, “We’ve been meaning to send out a request to the Alliance in regards to filling another position or two with the Civil Corps here in Portia, but between all the running around we’ve had to do lately, none of us have had the chance.”

While Tuss appeared shocked, Remi’s face had already split into a wide grin.

Arlo made a big show of studying his fingernails, as if what he was offering wasn’t that big of a deal, “But even _if_ one of us sent out the paperwork tomorrow, it would probably be months before we would hear back. Now, there _is_ a clause about inviting members to an honorary guard,” He met Tuss’ eyes, “Assuming certain requirements are met that allow them to be considered. But I would expect the assistance you and Huss gave us out on the field today to be a decent start. What do you think, Remi?”

“I think you’re probably right.”

“Other than that, all it really takes is approval from every standing member. Whaddaya say?” He finally smiled, “Want to go see if Sam thinks you two are up for the task?”


	18. Arlo: A Nightmare (Rated: E)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Liz has a bad dream...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is rated E for Explicit Sexual Content.

_Pure chaos struck Liz’s ears as she and Sam rematerialized at the edge of Peach Plaza, Watchmen beginning to engage the people of Portia._

_Liz knew Sam said something, moved away from her to make the rush to Central Plaza, but when she tried to follow, she felt too slow, unable to reply._

_She watched in horror as her body refused to react, refused to dash forward in Gale’s direction, helplessly left to see the mayor to be struck suddenly by a Watchman’s foot and flung into the air to fall lifeless to the ground near Peach’s Fountain._

_Each time after that, Liz was too slow, the shouts of the rallying people mixing with the blasts from the robots and creating a cacophony too thick to properly wade through._

_Erwa dropped. Then Mint. Lee. Albert. As Liz tried to run forward into the thick of it, tried to save them, their cries of pain washed over her._

_Helpless to rescue anyone, Liz clutched at her heart and screamed Gust’s name when the Watchman he faced knocked him down, flattened him with a foot, and then kept moving._

_“I’ll fight ‘til the end.”_

_“Stand your ground! We need to protect our home!”_

_“Beat them back!”_

_No matter what they yelled, none of them remained standing and Liz could feel her tears making weeping tracks down the sides of her face._

_Martha. Higgins. Oaks. _

_She knew all of their names. Knew all of their stories. Had so much left about them to discover._

_She followed Paulie, Russo, Mars, trying to make it to Central Plaza, trying to reach something she had forgotten, someone that had been left behind._

_Pumping her arms, feeling her muscles unable to answer her demands, she caught sight of the All-Source, picking up and flinging Remington aside, sending Sam skittering across the plaza. _

_Ack tried to protect the children, but the Wishing Tree it brandished took them all._

_The Rogue Knight’s laughter rang in Liz’s ear as he watched the destruction, as the All-Source bat Merlin away too._

_He brandished his sword and leapt from the top of the All-Source and Liz could not get her feet moving quick enough to knock Django out of the way, the Storm Knight himself getting run through in a flash of lightning and thunder that rolled over Liz’s senses and left the moment in silhouette before her._

_Her eyes zeroed in on Arlo, crushed beneath the All-Source’s foot, eyes blank even though he reached out for her, said her name, and she couldn’t look away--_

Liz wrenched herself from the nightmare and suddenly sat up in bed, her bare skin struck by the cool air of the room as the bedcovers fell away to her lap. She continued to breathe heavily and tried to clear the images still dancing in front of her eyes, the overwhelming fear and frustration and sorrow lingering just like the scattered pieces of the nightmare across her field of vision.

Something about the charge in the air pulled Arlo from the deepness of sleep and as his awareness filtered into his senses, he realized he could no longer feel Lizzie’s head resting on top of his outstretched arm.

He struggled for a moment, groggy, still not recovered from the drinking which hours earlier had brought him and Liz stumbling over their doorstep amidst banter and kisses that had quickly blossomed into passionate love-making.

“Liz?” He called before he managed to get his eyes open to see her and repeated, “Lizzie?”

She was sitting up next to him and he wasn’t sure why.

“Darling, what’s wrong?” He pushed himself up, feeling the dehydrated ache of his bones and rubbing his hand down his face trying to dismiss the dull throb in his head.

Cautiously reaching out to run his palm across her back, she gave a twitching shiver and then looked over at him with wide eyes and a gaze that made him force any other distractions away.

Before he could ask her again, his wife’s expression scrunched up with soon-to-fall tears as she threw her arms around his torso and clasped them together tightly at his back, her face buried up against his chest where he could feel her sobs start to moisten his skin.

Readily wrapping his arms around her, at first Arlo murmured soothing nonsense to her as he held her close, before long pulling her over his leg and making a seat for her on top of the covers between his knees as he protectively leaned himself around and about her as completely as he could.

When he heard her eventually starting to calm down into sniffles, he kissed her head for the twentieth time and buried his nose in her hair.

He wanted desperately to ask her what was wrong, to plead with her to stop crying for his sake, but he had guesses as to the first and felt the second to be exceptionally insensitive. Not to mention selfish.

The haunted look he’d seen in her eyes spoke of a nightmare and it didn’t take a genius to consider perhaps the events of the day before had been too much for her at last.

Arlo let out a huge sigh as she quieted.

Things had been much simpler in the years before she arrived and a part of him was sorry she hadn’t been here _then,_ instead thrown into circumstances even he lately felt were spiraling somewhat out of control.

Liz slid a hand formerly resting over Arlo’s chest up to his shoulder to curl around it, letting out a shaky breath and listening to the steady beating of his heart beneath her ear.

Warm. Comforting. Safe.

Arlo squeezed his limbs around her briefly before letting up and leaning back to see how she was doing. 

He hesitated, uncertain what to say.

“I...I wish I could take it all away. Anything that ever bothered you. I’d take them on in a heartbeat if I knew how. But I...I don’t know what to do...” He said helplessly.

Liz scooted up until she sat with her head on his shoulder, wrapping her arms around his neck as he let his legs relax back to the bed and encircled her with his arms.

“You’re doing everything I could have thought to ask for, Red.” She murmured against him. “It was just a bad dream. That’s all.”

...

“Was it about the battle yesterday?”

She nodded.

“...I’m sorry.”

“S’not your fault.”

“I know, but-” He let out another breath, “-doesn’t mean I don’t feel any less responsible for it.”

“It’s always been my choice whether to help or not. No one has ever forced me into anything.”

“But we’ve always asked. Maybe it’s been too much to expect.”

Liz sat up fully now so she could look him in the eyes, giving him a small smile, “At this point I’d be more worried if you _didn’t_ ask. Like I’d done something wrong and you didn’t want me.”

He reached up and scratched at the back of his head with a half-grin, “Well, that’s certainly not true.”

“Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t feel any less responsible for it.” She replied meaningfully.

He narrowed his eyes playfully at her.

“Why, you-” He wrapped his arms around her once more and kissed her soundly for a moment.

When there was space between them to breathe, he gazed into her eyes and spoke softly, “Look, I know you’re capable of handling anything anyone ever throws at you. We _all_ know. You’ve proven it to us ten times over.”

Liz’s hand moved absently back and forth across his chest as she sat quietly in his embrace and listened.

“And I know I’m not as strong as you, but-”

“_Arlo._” She chastised.

“I’m not! I’m not afraid to admit it. It’s the truth.” He shrugged as if it didn’t particularly matter to him either way, “Frankly, it gives me something to strive for, keeps me working at bettering myself, and if I’m being honest anyway...it’s kinda hot.” One of his eyebrows rose higher on his face as he gave her a sidelong grin.

“Arlo.” This time her protest was accompanied by Liz rolling her eyes at his ridiculous expression.

“But,” he shifted his arms so his hands could rub gently up and down her bare shoulders, “In spite of all that, I want you to know that you never have to face any of it alone. Not if you don’t want to. Even if you know you can handle it and you just want something pretty to look at while you do.”

Liz looked up to spy the same roguish grin he always gave in moments like these plastered across his features. But she knew he was serious, too.

He leaned over her and kissed her forehead, his earlier expression of tender fondness returning, “All you have to do is ask, my dear. And I’ll be at your side in an instant.”

“Just as long as you’re on the _right_ side.” Liz said meaningfully, trying not to laugh.

Arlo let out an exasperated sigh, “You’re _never_ gonna let me live that down, are you?”

“Ack was standing right there.”

“Yeah! Facing me! It was _my_ left!”

Liz finally just laughed with delight and threw her arms back around his neck to return his kiss from earlier, finding his lips grumbled half-heartedly against hers about the unintentional mistake he’d made during the fight with the Rogue Knight and the All-Source until she shifted around to straddle his lap and silence any further complaints he might have.

Arlo found himself easily lost in the intensity of her kisses, her arms resting on either of his shoulders and clasped together somewhere behind him.

At first his hands smoothed down her sides, his right moving down to rest at her hip while the left found the scar she’d gotten from their first encounter with the Rogue Knight and pressed his hand warmly against it as if he could take it away with his touch.

She didn’t seem to notice his attention to it, and he became distracted from the thought of it as her lips continued to move over his and eventually he slid both hands behind her to cup her bottom and squeeze his fingers into its pleasant roundness.

Liz’s hips twitched once when she felt the quilt between their laps pressing more insistently against her with Arlo’s growing arousal. She smiled as she continued her kisses, but started to lean her weight forward and shifted her hands until she had them resting at his pecs to encourage him to lay down.

Arlo slowly lowered back onto the bed, making a small noise at the back of his throat as her erect nipples skated across his chest and then she pressed her weight into him more fully once he met with the sheets, her breasts squishing wonderfully against him.

Leaving him panting at the ceiling, his hands roaming over her back and everything he could reach, Liz trailed gentle bites and kisses all the way up his jaw until she took his ear lobe between her teeth and tugged at it before continuing to toy her tongue over his ear as one of her hands crept up the side of his neck and tangled its fingers into the hair at the base of his neck, curling around the strands to give a sharp jerk that forced Arlo’s chin up as the pleasure of the momentary pain burst past his lips in a quick cry and his hands clutched at her waist briefly in the midst of it.

Sometimes, a switch would flip in his brain and he would fight her when she did things like this, when she willfully held him in place and wouldn’t let him do what he wanted. He would struggle against her, try and gain the upper hand any way he might, and Liz knew perfectly well by now he straight-up _enjoyed_ when she met his attempts at doing so with a brutish denial he could not overpower no matter how hard he tried, just as much as he enjoyed pinning her down and nailing her into the bed in turn.

This was not one of those times, however, Arlo too caught up in the sensations she freely sent washing over him to think of anything else.

Lowering herself over his exposed neck, Liz earned herself more noises rumbling sometimes in his chest and often into the air as she continued trailing love-bites all the way down the side of his neck, his fingers intermittently compressing against her skin as if he tried to hold on to those moments lest he be completely overwhelmed by them.

When she reached the place where his neck met with his shoulder, Liz bit down _hard_ and felt Arlo writhe a little underneath her as another small cry jolted out of his mouth. The hands gripping urgently at her hips tightened their grasp and pulled her down over his throbbing erection almost uncomfortably as his lower half was still caught beneath the covers.

Breath still coming out of him in short spurts, Arlo tried to watch her out of the corner of his eyes as Liz moved farther down over his collarbone, and when she released her hold on his hair he turned to properly lift his head and see the rest of her body hovering over him, giving out a groan as he caught her swirling her tongue over his chest and leaving him glistening before sending a breath of cool air over his moistened skin.

He gave her a crooked grin as she continued to explore him, her hands seeking to measure the various lines of his abdomen, memorize the planes of his chest even as her lips tasted and caressed him with their soft warmth, and he got quite distracted from what he’d been about to say as she tested the firmness of his muscles, sometimes with feathery, teasing touches and otherwise with tender, firm strokes.

“H-Hey, aren’t _I_ supposed to be the one comforting _you_?” He finally managed, propped up just a little on his elbows where he had been watching her.

Her response was to nip at his ribs on the one side, and then twice more when he twitched and yelped in surprise at the first one and he caught her gorgeous eyes flicker in his direction and catch his gaze.

As she kept going lower, she didn’t stop looking at him, seeing now the blush settled across the mask of his features and certain he hadn’t the faintest idea every so often he would give himself away and pull a bit of his lower lip into his mouth when she sent a particularly favorable sensation across his skin, which of course would only cause her to repeat it, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, just to get him to moan approvingly at her for her troubles.

Well, one thing was for certain: he definitely didn’t have a headache anymore. Either that or the pulsing of the blood in his dick was too strong of a sensation and overran the pain in his other head. 

While normally Liz might have taken her time exploring his hardened length, by the time she had slowly worked to slide the covers farther and farther past his narrow hips and leave him completely exposed, she just smoothed her hand down the last inches of his stomach to wrap her fingers around the base of him and after licking across the drop of clear fluid gathered at the top took him fully into her mouth.

He desperately wanted to watch her do it, but the suddenness with which she did had his head dropping back as her name dripped out of his lips and elongated into several other sounds.

Arlo wasn’t surprised his hips jerked somewhat out of his direct control in response to being enveloped in her warm mouth, her tongue immediately beginning to work all over him, and the hand not occupying itself with massaging the lower part of his member found his hip to hold him in place so he wouldn’t accidentally choke her.

Once Liz was more certain another large jerk wouldn’t happen, the hand at his hip moved down over his thigh to massage at it as she moved up and down, sometimes gently sucking at him or pulling her mouth free to run her tongue from base to tip before taking him into her mouth again.

Meanwhile, Arlo was torn between propping himself up to watch and wanting to touch her, switching back and forth between his elbows so he could reach down every so often and brush his fingertips against her shoulder or move her hair so he could see, resting his hand against her as he was able.

At one point, one of her hands left him to lovingly intertwine with his searching fingers and rest them together next to him on the bed.

Arlo honestly could not have said how much time had passed, whether he lasted very long or not, but he knew the instant one of her hands began cupping and fondling his sac it was over. As he spilled himself into her mouth and she drank him in, he knew it had been her name he called as the waves finally broke over him and took him under their tide.

As Liz rode out his release, her hands planted on either one of his hips made for sure he didn’t buck too violently against her, giving him just enough leeway to react instinctively without having to worry himself over going too far, she eventually swallowed once he had slowed, tasting the salt of him even as she drew her lips upwards off of him in a way that meant no mess for either of them.

She may not have been breathing heavily, but Arlo was, now flat on his back on the bed, his eyes half-lidded of the aftermath still roaring in his ears even as he reached out his arms so she would crawl back up the bed into them and let him hold her as close as he could manage, her head resting on his chest as she started stroking a hand over his skin again, soothing this time instead of searching as before.

Eventually Arlo gathered enough of his wits about him to press a kiss in the midst of her hair and smooth his hand up and down the arm she was moving across his chest as she did so.

“Lizzie, I-”

“Shh. You’re tired. Let it be. Besides, I owed you one from earlier.”

“I thought we promised never to keep track?” He interjected.

“We’re not again, now that we’re even.”

“_Lizzie..._”

She just kissed his side at the playfully threatening tone.

“Lizzie, that’s not how that’s supposed to work.” He was smiling at her, but his eyes had long-since closed.

“Are you thirsty? I really need a glass of water.”

He would have protested her leaving him, but found he just frowned at her as she started to sit up.

She’d been drinking too, he remembered, though _probably_ not as much as he, since she’d taken a little nap while at the tavern. That didn’t mean she hadn’t gone to all that trouble just now while aching with a headache _herself_ and that’s what had him frowning.

He let a breath puff past his lips when her warmth was gone from his arms and he couldn’t manage to pull two brain cells together long enough to protest _either_ her leaving him _or_ in what condition she’d just pleasured him in.

One eye opened where he’d turned on his side trying to get her to stay, Arlo smiled again as he watched her leave to walk over to the kitchen at the far side of the room.

“_Damn._” The word of compliment in regards to her figure huffed quietly out of his lips in another breath, tracking her hips and rear view with content satisfaction even as sleepily as he did.

He must have slipped over the edge into sleep then, because the next time she was at the bedside, it was with a glass of water and he barely remembered sitting up far enough to drink some of it properly before he had his hands on her, pulling her back down beside him as she scrambled to put the glass down on the bedside table.

They tangled their legs together, laying flush up against one another and he’d nearly fallen back asleep before he mumbled out, “Are you free to go out on a date morning after this one?”

He hung onto his last shred of consciousness long enough to feel her nod before he replied, “Good,” and slipped off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, in MY game during that cutscene where Ack is talking about the control chip he no longer has in his leg, I *swear* the animators had him missing his right leg, so then when Arlo insisted in his voice over (which we all know to be pretty off-base at times compared to the source material, lul) the All-Source must also have it's control chip "in its left leg" I was just like LOL and knew I had to write Liz teasing Arlo about that call xD


	19. Arlo: The Next Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Liz takes two commissions...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy one month of posting to me!~ Can't believe it's already been a month. Thanks to everyone who has come along for the ride! You dah best.

Liz supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised to find Albert heading for her doorstep the next morning and he gave her a wave she answered with one of her own even as she hid a yawn behind a hand.

The drinking the day before at Django’s and her and Arlo’s inability to keep their hands off of one another once they were alone that evening meant less sleep than usual.

“Hey, Liz! You’re up!” Albert gave her a smile once he’d come close enough to where he didn’t have to yell to have a conversation.

“Did you and Mint figure out the semantics for the school and the gate last night?” She remembered they had been deep in conversation amidst the on-going celebration.

“Sure did! I-I’m sorry to bother you so soon after all that’s happened.” He self-consciously put a hand up at the back of his neck.

“It’s no trouble.” She waved away his concern. “I’m sure we’re all eager to rid ourselves of the reminders of the attack.” Liz’s eyes lifted up over the town as she remembered the Wishing Tree was gone now too. “Or...at least...all that we can anyway.”

“Yeah...” Albert followed her gaze for a moment. “Uh, anyway. I’ve got a couple of lists here for the materials we’ll need to gather for the jobs.” He handed them to her and continued, “I thought I’d bring them to you so you could pick whichever one you preferred and I’ll give the other to Higgins.”

Liz flipped through the pages and zoned out for a moment thinking about what materials she already had on hand.

It wouldn’t take her long to complete both of these, frankly.

...and while it wasn’t _exactly_ her fault things turned out so bad, it would certainly make her feel better to help in the reconstruction. Not to mention the fact Liz thought maybe the few things she would need to go gather would keep her mind off of...things.

“Albert...would it be too much trouble for you if I did both of them?” She looked up at him and something in her gaze made the man tilt his head at her.

“Uh,” He blinked, “I mean, no, not at all. Would save me the trip to Higgins, I guess. I just thought you might be busy.”

“No, I...I’d like to do them both if that’s okay.”

“Sure thing!”

~!**!~

The steady rhythm of the pickaxe had calmed Liz’s thoughts into a still lake of mindless activity--drop, klink, shift, heft, drop, klink, shift, heft--as she barely took note of the way sweat had long ago dropped in beaded trails down the sides of her neck and continued to gather at her hairline to wind their way south over her skin once large enough.

Back at the workshop, her factory and other furnaces and blenders and such worked to produce from the materials she had on hand the requests Albert made of her, but once again she didn’t have enough Igneous Rock in her stores to make the cut.

So, leaving the machines to their work, she hopped on her Cotton Llama and made the trek out to the Western Plateau, trying not to let the memories of yesterday, the lingering stormcloud of her nightmares, simmer in her brain.

Breaking apart the rock at last, Liz wiped at her brow as the pieces gathered to her and she glanced over towards her left at the sword she’d brought with her and earlier had been swinging around.

The Rogue Knight’s weapon, stabbed into the ground during his fight with Django on a downward, desperate jab towards the tavern owner’s feet and left forgotten when Django had replied with a series of attacks of his own and drove the enemy into a hasty retreat.

While Django didn’t move to touch it, he encouraged Liz at the time to take it, saying between them in the private moment he thought it best she be the one to use it.

“That sort of power can be meaningful if used wisely, dear.” He told her with a kind seriousness when after a brief tug the sword came free and felt strangely cold in her grasp. “And I think out of anyone, you’re the best candidate for teaching it better manners.”

She hadn’t exactly understood what he meant, but nodded and put the sword away then.

Up here on the Western Plateau where no one could see her, Liz had been practicing with it a bit, finding its balance perfect and its feel like an extension of her own arm in an exceptionally short amount of time.

Liz stabbed it into the ground and sat in front of it earlier, examining its make and knowing she’d yet to come across anything like it herself, eventually leaving it to set about her task of gathering rocks around the area.

“Yeah, you’re a good boy, aren’t you?”

Startled at the realization she was no longer alone, Liz turned to see Arlo scratching his fingers at her Llama’s chin, the latter obviously enjoying the attention.

Arlo gave her a wave and came up closer.

“Fancy meeting you here, stranger.”

His smile meant her lips also wanted to return it, but he noticed the hesitancy to her expression.

“Imagine my surprise coming up the lift to make my rounds to see your boy over there munching on some grass.” When he reached her and made as if to hug her, she didn’t shy away from it exactly, but before he completed the gesture, protested:

“_Oh_, I’m _so_ sweaty, Arlo.” Her nose scrunched up.

“_Oh_, I don’t _care_, Lizzie.” He retorted, gathering her up in his arms and squeezing her even as she relented and wrapped an arm around him.

His eyes scanning the plateau around them, he noticed some of what he knew to be the usual rocks around missing and gave her a look, crossing his arms. once they let go of one another.

“You know you don’t have to finish _every_ commission you ever get in two days, right?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She loftily replied.

“Mm-hm. And you running frantically around your workyard this morning when we ran by with Paulie was just normal daily activity for you.”

“Well...” Liz wasn’t about to admit that maybe she’d bit off more than she could chew with this pair of commissions. In any case, she really didn’t think she’d be able to get it done in two days, but dammit she would try.

“This wasn’t your typical frantic running, darling. I’ve seen you often enough in the mornings to be able to tell the difference.” He raised an eyebrow at her and she shrugged, but she also hadn’t exactly been able to meet his eyes yet.

“What if,” He went on, “I finish up my patrol here,” He nodded off to the right, “And circle back and we go on that date we said we’d have. Think you’ll be ready for it by the time I get back?”

“That’d be nice.” She finally gave him a bit of a smile and it made him feel at least a little better in any case.

“Right! I’ll be back!” 

~!**!~

By the time Arlo returned, he found Liz farther up the side of the rock formations and moved her direction just as he watched her stand back up and finish gathering the last of the Igneous Rock.

“You ready?” He called once he got a little closer.

She nodded and watched him approach.

Something glinting in the sunlight over her shoulder caught his attention.

“Woah...Liz, is that the Rogue Knight’s sword?” His eyes widened as he put a hand up to shade them from the sun.

Another nod.

“Mind if I have a look at it?” He flashed her a grin.

She made a negatory sound and followed after him as he trotted off.

“Wow, it looks _really_ cool.” She heard him say as he slowed down and walked around it, thoughtfully reaching up and moving the tips of his fingers back and forth across his goatee. “Does it handle well?”

Liz shrugged and gestured to it and Arlo gave her that same wide smile and reached out to take a hold of the hilt.

He hissed, “Wow, it’s _really_ cold.”

She watched him tug at it and when he couldn’t get it out of the ground, they both frowned at it.

“How far did you get this thing down in here, Lizzie?” His smile this time almost had her chuckle, but she just smiled back and shook her head at him.

“Not that far, I don’t think.” Moving towards the sword and her husband, she watched curiously as he continued to try and lift it and at the last realized he genuinely was straining himself trying to draw it from the ground. “I-I’m sorry, here.” 

Without thinking, she reached for it as he took a step back and almost threw herself off balance with how easily it came free.

“Oh, come _on_.” Arlo protested, crossing his arms over his chest. “You’ve _got_ to be kidding me.”

“I said I didn’t think I put it in that far.” He noticed a pinkish tint to her cheeks as she looked down at the sword she held hanging at her side now. 

“Put it back.” He insisted.

She drove it into the ground at her feet.

He still had no luck getting it back out.

“_Really?_” He seemed utterly flabbergasted by the whole situation, “I _watched_ you put it down there. You really _didn’t_ put it very far. Show me again.”

It came out just as easily as before for her as it had the last time and Arlo let out a long sigh of amused frustration.

“Ugh, _fine_. Can I see it now? The chill is really quite fasi-ack!”

When Liz relinquished the hilt to him, Arlo immediately dropped it, point-first, into the ground at his feet and sat staring at it with wide eyes.

Neither of them said anything for a minute, Liz unsure what was going on and Arlo perfectly aware of what was happening.

He slowly released his hand and let the sword hilt go, staring at it.

Finally Arlo huffed out a laugh, “I don’t know why I’m so surprised.”

Liz looked at him curiously.

He eyed her for a moment, “Do you think we could pick up where we left off the other day?”

“Where’s that, Arlo?”

“When we were sparring.”

“You mean when I was beating you?”

He laughed, seeing a gleam in her eye that he’d been gunning for start to return, “Yeah, something like that.”

As they faced off with one another, Arlo set his jaw, more eager to rid her mind of whatever worries might be plaguing her than actually improve, but he would sure do his damnedest to distract her.

Sometimes he would make the first move, sometimes she would, a series of retaliations continuing until one or the other of them disengaged.

He knew she was off her game when after the first handful of times she still hadn’t managed to land a hit. She almost always read him better than he could ever hide his maneuvers somehow and would thwart his best attempts, but when she seemed unfocused today, he suddenly got an idea.

Ducking into her space under an ill-timed right hook, he popped up and bent over her to kiss her, getting away with the smooch just long enough to enjoy the feeling of her soft lips before she suspected foul play and darted left, feinting a dodge but telegraphing too much her intention to plant her foot and swing the other his direction.

He just laughed and caught her foot against his side, taking the brunt of the hit for the opportunity to have control of her leg and another chance at getting her still long enough to kiss her again.

He felt her indignation this time as she wrenched herself free and followed up with two quick jabs he managed to block, apparently surprised he went to kiss her and giving Arlo enough time at her lips to actually get a taste of her.

She eyed him warily now and he tossed a grin her direction, making her narrow her eyes and rush him, something she rarely ever did, and he caught her two swings in each of his hands, this time leaving a peck on her cheek before trying to turn her to get her in a lock and having her manage to wriggle away.

She glared at him, finding she almost couldn’t stand his cheeky smile and in some ways wanting to wipe the thing clean off his face.

Growling at him, she rushed him again, but this time tackled him around the waist and knocked him off his feet amidst his peals of laughter that only served to frustrate her further as he went down and she pinned him below her.

For her narrowed eyes in his face he awarded her with that same wily expression as she felt him shift beneath her, testing her hold.

“You-” She made a noise of aggravation but couldn’t think of anything to say.

“Me.” He teased back reaching his face up towards her like he might rub his nose against her own.

She sat up then, before he could, crossing her arms and sitting full back onto his chest.

“You’re the _worst_.” Liz frowned down at him, but Arlo could see her trying to fight back some good-humor.

“But I have the _best_ teacher.” He wiggled his eyebrows up and down and in the midst of the distraction managed to buck her off just high enough to get a leg free and turn the tables on her, pinning her arms to the ground as he knocked the air out of her lungs before planting himself across her waist and leaning over her.

She sighed, defeated, her glare holding some of the former ire, but not all.

“Do you give?”

She tested his holds on her a little, face flushed with exertion and embarrassment.

“I _said,_ do you give, Lizzie?” He pressed her arms more firmly into the dirt, making it clear he wouldn’t give his position up without a decent fight on her part.

Her gaze darted away from his leering face and she mumbled, “I guess.”

“Good.” He closed the distance between them and planted a heavy kiss on her lips, knowing the thoughts that weighed on her mind today were likely thick ones and seeking to perhaps, for a time, lift them from her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little nod there to the Rogue Knight's Sword supposedly incapable of being picked up unless you're above level 50. Literally no one in town should be able to handle that thing except for freakin' Russo. I'm half-tempted to write a chapter involving him and the sword with Liz tbh...
> 
> (Psssst, this is future Star, writing to you from the future. I do actually end up having a chapter with the sword and Russo, just so you know XD)


	20. Gust: Peace in Politics 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Gust confronts Liz...

“And you’re absolutely _sure_ you want a marble gate, but a stone fence.” Albert had his hands crossed over his chest, leaning back in the chair at his desk so it balanced on two legs.

“Yes, Albert. I’m _sure_.” Liz reassured him for the twelfth time, flipping back and forth between the two pages in the catalog with the marble structure and the stone structure.

Albert’s brow furrowed lower on his face as he stared intensely at the catalog.

“...but _why_?”

“Because I like the way it looks, Albert.”

He made a noise of consternation.

“I’m paying you to do it, Albert. I have the materials. And if I want this gate with that fence,” She pointed at their pictures, “Why does it matter so much?”

“Oh, I guess it doesn’t.” He admitted, snapping back down to all four chair legs. “Let me just fill out the paperwork so I can have you sign it. Can you stick around for a minute or two?”

Liz nodded, “Sure.”

“Great.” He reached over into one of the drawers and rifled through a few dividers before pulling a packet onto the table as Liz stood up and quietly moved up the steps of the split-level to eye the various binders on the shelf she knew to be wallpaper and flooring examples but she’d never cared to peruse before.

Things had calmed down at least a little bit. While no one had found Everglade yet, Mali was on her way with backup to take off with the pirates, and do a little searching while they were here.

Aadit was gone.

Liz wasn’t sure how she felt about it. Some said he was the Rogue Knight, others argued against it.

But Liz had gotten up close and personal with the Rogue Knight. Where Aadit had smelled like rustic pines and cool cinnamon, all Liz ever caught from the Knight was completely mechanical in nature, like the smell of her running furnaces, engines and oil. And sure the voice changer meant it could be Aadit covering his gentle timbre, and Liz supposed the pacifist might actually have been lying the entire time, but could he really have been hiding all this time the strength to take down even Mali?

Liz wasn’t sure.

“Here we are.” Albert handed her a pen and held the clipboard out in her direction and Liz, who had been staring at the same page of the wallpaper samples for at least a minute, blinked over at him and nodded, reaching for the pen to sign. “I’ll see to it that it’s taken care of right away!”

“Thanks, Albert.”

“Sure thing!”

After rustling about his desk a bit, Albert headed out the door.

“You and Mint were asking around about what I like.”

It wasn’t a question, and it came from over Liz’s shoulder so as to startle her.

She hadn’t even heard his chair move, nor the blonde architect come to stand over her.

Liz glanced over at him out of the corner of her eye and caught him borderline glaring at her.

Gust hated how close Liz had gotten to his drawing board, strictly because her proximity meant he could pick up the hibiscus scent wafting over his nose from her direction, and he’d intended as soon as he heard her come in to confront her about what he felt was an attack on his family’s privacy by one of his least favorite people.

“I mean, I didn’t exactly have to do a lot of asking, Gust.” Liz turned back down to the binder, flipping the page thoughtfully. “I know you well enough for that. Though it _was_ interesting to find out from your sister you’re always giving her umbrellas.”

Liz fought back a smile.

She always wondered why he seemed to want so many, thinking he surely couldn’t be so harsh to them as require more than one a month.

“Why are you helping _him_?”

Liz blinked and frowned up at Gust, his sudden hostility disarming.

“Why don’t you like him?”

“He’s just trying to barge in on our family.”

“He respects your father!”

“He’s worming his way into pop’s good graces and the only reason he wants to get on _my_ good side is so he can have a good relationship with my father.”

“Gust, it isn’t like he’s trying to steal your inheritance.”

“Tch.”

“Or your sister.” 

Something about the way Gust’s eyes darted off to the side amidst his aggravation made Liz turn to face him more fully, searching his face.

“Ginger told me you were asking about me. Then a mysterious gift with a note lands on my desk. I don’t even need to guess to know it’s from Mint, only he could be so devious.”

Liz blinked at him, unsure suddenly if they were talking about the same person.

The Mint Liz knew told her earlier that he’d chickened out giving the gift, _Five Hundred Creative Designs_, and just left a note with the book on Gust’s desk.

She also knew Mint did think of Gale as a father figure and hoped the rest of his family would be as accepting of his presence.

Mint growing up in an orphanage wasn’t something Liz could strictly identify with, but she certainly knew what having an absent father was like.

“Albert has been giving me a hard time since.”

“Look, Gust.” Liz said firmly, drawing his eyes back to her, “It’s not my place to tell you Mint’s story. That’s something you’ll have to ask _him_. But I can tell you that he genuinely just wants to get to know you better.”

He stared at her for a moment.

“Really now...”

Liz nodded, and then gave him a little smile, “Like I did.”

She watched as the edges of Gust’s eyes softened and he returned her smile. Just barely, but the lift of his lips was hard to miss.

“And you’re kind of an enigma, you know.” She teased.

“What?” He raised an eyebrow at her, smile gone as he scrutinized her.

“You come across as brusque and rude to most people. Mint came to me because he knew we were friends and wanted help breaking the ice, too scared to approach you on his own.”

“Hm.” He narrowed his eyes at her a bit, but there was no malice behind the gesture.

“Honest.” She reached out to put a hand on his arm, “He means well.”

“Now,” Liz turned back down to the binder in her hand and pointed at one of the swatches, “I think I’d really like to change the wallpaper in the house. Do you think this one would look okay?”

“With that awful flooring you have?”

“I want to fix that too.”

“Good.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The quest Peace in Politics made me laugh cuz when Mint asked, I wanted to straight-up be like 'Why do I have to ask anybody? Gust likes this and this and this.' xD


	21. Arlo: Gust's Birthday and Russo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Arlo and Liz visit Gust, Russo, and head to Starlight Island...

Liz slipped up behind Arlo as he poured coffee into his mug and felt him relax against her as she moved her hands over his bare abdomen and rested her cheek against his back.

“Rough night?”

Arlo turned his head to glance down at what he could see of her, smirking a little as he felt her body pressing into his.

He hadn’t even bothered to put any clothing on yet, and apparently neither had she.

“We’ve had rougher.” He teased, putting the carafe back.

“You’ve been frowning all morning.”

Arlo paused, asking quietly, “Have I?”

He felt her nod against him and he let out a sigh as she drew her lips together over his skin comfortingly.

“Was it a bad dream?”

“...yeah.” Flashes of the overbearing heat and the smoke darkening the sky passed over his mind’s eye.

“I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault.”

She just squeezed her arms around him briefly.

He shifted around in her embrace until he could get his left arm around her shoulders and pull her against him, leaning down to kiss her head as she hugged him.

He let out another breath, burying his nose in her hair for a moment, “Just gotta be careful with fire in the rural area when it’s dry. I don’t wish to watch everything burn again. It was horrible.”

“Oh, Arlo...” She looked up at him, eyes sad and his smile mirrored her expression before he bent over to kiss her forehead this time.

“I’m alright.” He let out a breath more like himself. “The summer heat and all. Not my favorite. It’s really a test of my will.”

Liz didn’t say anything, just holding him.

“Say, I’ve gotta run over to Starlight Island today. Want to come with me? It’d be nice to have the company.”

Liz looked up from where she had buried her face against his chest and grinned, “That sounds like fun! I haven’t had a chance to go over there since Mali and I visited.”

“I’ll have to make some rounds while I’m over there, but they shouldn’t take too long. I was planning on getting it over with this morning. Does that sound alright?”

Liz scrunched up her nose, “Only if we don’t leave too quickly. I’ve been so busy reorganizing the yard these last couple of days I really ought to take a commission.”

Arlo laughed, “That’s fine with me. Is it alright if I join you?”

She looked skeptical, “I’m just going to be running around.”

“Well then, it’s a good thing you’re my _favorite_ person to run around with.” He smiled and nuzzled his nose against hers.

“Mm.” Liz closed her eyes for a moment and Arlo snuck a soft kiss against her lips.

“Oh!” She exclaimed when he pulled back, earning herself a questioning look from the other. “And it’s Gust’s birthday! I’ll want to drop by the construction offices too.”

“Fine by me!”

~!**!~

Arlo and Liz walked out of the house hand-in-hand and both looked up at the sound of the airplane flying overhead.

“Huh.” Arlo commented, “She’s a day early.”

“Yeah?”

He nodded and pulled Liz along out of the gate and up the road towards Peach Plaza.

“I’ll have to assume Remi and Sam are out there meeting her. She must not have contacted us about her early arrival before this morning, or I would have heard about it.”

Liz grew silent for a moment before wondering softly, “Maybe she was worried about us.”

Arlo raised an eyebrow at her, “You think so?”

Liz shrugged.

~!**!~

“Happy Birthday, Gust!” Liz exclaimed as she got in the door, rushing across the room to leap up the split-level before Gust hardly had time to look up.

“Happy Birthday!”

Gust blinked owlishly at Arlo, who was grinning and gave him a wave of congratulations.

By the time he turned back to Liz, she was already by his side and he scooted his chair away from his desk when he saw she had something in her hands.

“I-uh-” She blushed a little. “So, I actually _meant_ to give _this_ one to Mint the other day? But I’ve been meaning for you to have this.”

She extended a book between them and he stared speechlessly down at the cover.

_Structural Aesthetics. _

“As a thanks for, you know, helping me out.” She put her hands awkwardly in her back pockets when he gently took the book from her.

He only barely managed to form a few words, still in shock, “You...remembered my birthday?”

“Well, _yeah._”

“And this gift was specially prepared for me?”

Liz chuckled, “You could put it that way, I guess.”

~!**!~

Liz studied the board thoughtfully, considering the requests and what she might have on hand.

After sweeping his eyes briefly over it himself, Arlo had taken to holding up the wall next to the board, arms crossed over his chest as he stared ahead, not really seeing the rest of the room.

He turned to look at Liz when she let out a decisive huff and he knew she’d picked what she was going to do.

“Leather belts, huh? Hm.” He peered over her shoulder as she reached out to take it.

She nodded, completely oblivious to the gleam in his eye.

“Sounds fun.”

“It’s not too difficult, in any case. I might even have a couple lying around.”

“Really.”

Another nod as she turned to start walking for the door, staring down at the paper as she gave Antoine a wave.

Arlo followed Liz back down the steps of the guild, grinning at her back the whole way.

“Ar-_lo_...” Liz tried not to roll her eyes as she considered the commission sheet she’d taken from the board.

“What?” He asked innocently.

She sent him a look over her shoulder, but he could tell she was fighting a smile.

“Leather belts sound _‘fun_?’”

His façade didn’t so much as crack, only raising his eyebrows at her.

“That’s what I said.”

“Is it giving you ideas, hm?" 

"...Maybe. But I'll have you know they all involve us in some way." He waggled his eyebrows at her a couple of times.

"You’re the worst.” She finally grinned, shook her head, and turned back around. He grinned at her back.

“I know.”

~!**!~

Arlo and Liz walked back through the streets of town, past Django’s and then Alice’s towards Central Plaza where Liz knew Russo would sometimes be visiting Paulie at this hour of the morning.

“Hey, Builder!” Paulie greeted in his usual jolly way as Liz rounded the corner, “Captain!”

“Paulie. It’s good to see you.”

“Missed you at our run this morning!”

“I brought you the commission you posted, Russo.” Liz said as the Captain and Paulie continued their conversation next to them.

“Oh, thank you very much, Liz.” He blinked and reached up to adjust his spectacles as Liz handed him the belts, looking at something just beyond her shoulder, “...is that...?”

Liz tilted her head at him, the older man appearing entranced and Liz blushed and remembered she’d brought the sword with her before they left the workshop the second time, since she and Arlo planned on heading out to the island just as soon as she delivered the belts.

She didn’t even realize she’d been walking around openly with the thing.

“May I see it?” He put the belts away and held out his hands.

“U-Uh, sure.” Liz stammered, too taken by surprise by the moment to think twice, drawing the weapon and holding it out to him.

Russo delicately took it from her and the other conversation next to them came to a dead stop as Arlo stared slack-jaw at the butler who appeared to examine the blade with a trained eye.

“This is...I have not seen one of these since...” He seemed taken aback, “The metal is just as cold as I remember.” He mumbled to himself.

“You carry a heavy burden wielding this weapon.” Russo looked up at Liz, not with a stern glance, but instead a hopeful one as he gave it back to her. “I faced these monstrosities many times in the war with Duvos, but I know you wield it now for the safety of Portia. I look forward to you giving it a new purpose. May you do many great things in which it serves you well.”

~!**!~

Arlo and Liz did not speak much on the way to the port or even once they were on their way via the ferry to the island.

Neither one of them could stop thinking about what Russo had revealed: how the Rogue Knight’s weapon was a relic of an almost by-gone era of war.

Liz felt now more than ever the resolve to use it, as Russo said, with a new purpose, remembering how Django had mentioned teaching it new manners.

“Items like this carry with it memories of their past deeds.” Russo had added as Liz reached solemnly to put the weapon away. “I imagine that sword has much to atone for, but I can think of none better to do so than yourself. May you use it wisely, Builder.”

Arlo, on the other hand, was stuck on the fact that the old man had barely even _flinched_ when he plucked the sword from Liz’s grasp, and Arlo remembered _quite distinctly_ how _he_ could barely manage not to lose his grip on the hilt as the weight of it nearly pulled him down.

He knew that Gale and Russo had seen battle, knew that something had happened between them, Arlo personally under the impression that Gale had saved Russo’s life.

“Have you ever sparred with Russo?” Arlo asked Liz suddenly, breaking their silence.

“Hm?”

“Russo. Have you ever sparred with him.”

“Oh, uhm, once or twice I think.”

“What’s it like?” Arlo had never considered _asking_ Russo if he’d be interested in sparring.

“He’s really strong.”

Arlo thought Liz sounded surprised, or that in any case she had been surprised by it.

“I always find it so strange that _he_ of all people is willing to spar, but I’ve never gotten any indication Gale might say yes, so I’ve never asked the Mayor.”

Arlo nodded, “I feel the same way about that, though frankly I never would have thought of talking with Russo about that kind of thing. Sort of figured he’d given it up.”

Liz shrugged, “He’s pretty fun to go toe-to-toe with. What he lacks in overwhelming brute strength he makes up for with the wisdom he’s accumulated. Guy’s been around.”

“That’s the truth.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just in case anyone missed the reference here: In the game you're supposed to be unable to pick up the Rogue Knight's Sword unless you're level 50, and the only other person in town who IS level 50 that we know of is Russo, so I liked the idea of him being able to handle it, so I made up the bit about it being something he'd come up against with Duvos :)


	22. Arlo: Starlight Island

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Arlo and Liz visit Starlight Island...

Arlo hopped off the boat and without hesitation turned around and grabbed Liz by the waist, lifting her over the edge of it and leaving her laughing at him even as he set her on the dock in front of him and kissed her.

“Feeling better?” She wanted to know as she reached up and brushed pieces of his hair out of his face where he leaned over her.

His smile this time was more relaxed than it had been, “A little.” He grabbed her hand and they walked towards the sand. “And what about you? You haven’t had nightmares the last couple of days, right?”

Liz nodded, “Not really. Not since that one. Maybe some flickers of things, but nothing quite so terrifying.”

“Good.” He squeezed her hand, “I hate having things I couldn’t help you with if you asked.

“Arlo...” She said fondly, shaking her head.

“What? It’s true!” He swung their arms back and forth as they hopped onto the beach, “If I knew how to banish your nightmares, that’d be something, wouldn’t it?”

“And how do you think I feel with yours?”

“That’s different.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“You weren’t...you weren’t _there_ for mine.” He said more quietly, “How could I expect you to be able to rid me of them?”

“And just because you were there for _mine_ means you ought to be able to?”

“Yes.” He nodded emphatically.

Liz just let out a huff.

“I...I’m not blaming you for having them.” He said hurriedly.

“I know.”

“It’s just that...it makes me feel like I didn’t do enough at the time. That I didn’t protect you well enough so you _wouldn’t_ have them.”

“That’s exceptionally irrational of you.”

He let out a sigh, “I’m aware.”

As they rounded the nearest rock formation and were out of sight of the shore, he suddenly pulled her into his arms up against his chest and stuck his nose almost touching hers, “Am I allowed to be at least a little irrational when it comes to you?”

“Only if I get to do the same.”

He watched her lips as they fought against giving him a smile, her arms caught up between their bodies.

“I’ll allow it.” He decided.

“I’m so glad.” She replied dryly before he laughed and kissed her deeply before she could make any further commentary.

Eventually he pulled back, “I _do_ have to do my rounds at some point and the sooner I get them done the better, I think.” Before he got too carried away and did more than just kiss her. “Starlight Island is overall very safe, but I still need to do my rounds here, just to be sure.”

“I’ve been meaning to pick up some more of the coral that grows here.” Liz said as they disentangled from one another, “So I’ll just be running around looking for some of that.”

“Sounds good. I’ll come find you when I’m done!”

~!**!~

Liz busied herself for the next while going around collecting whatever she could find.

There wasn’t much to be had overall on the island except for the scenery, but the things one could find she couldn’t get very easily anywhere else and the process of keeping her eye out for them kept her mind busy enough to not take particular note of any time passing at all. 

_The Starlight Coral really is beautiful._

Liz held up the exquisite blue material, turning it back and forth in her hands and watching the sun overhead reflect off its edges.

“Though this is beautiful-”

Liz gasped in surprise, having not heard Arlo come up behind her and he deftly plucked the coral from her grasp before she could manage a single thought.

As she turned to face him, she watched in mock-horror as he barely even considered the item before tossing it over his shoulder and backing her up into the rock surface behind her, one of his hands planting next to her head as he reached for her face to cup a hand to her cheek.

“-it’s still not as beautiful as you.”

Her heart thundering in her chest at the look he was giving her, Liz found herself doing little else but standing there and watching Arlo lean over her, swept up in the pink tinge to her cheeks and at having been completely taken off guard.

Aware of the effect he was currently having on her, Arlo placed a kiss at the edge of Liz’s mouth, watching how her lips parted as if silently requesting they were next.

Instead, Arlo went the other direction, pressing his lips further up her cheek as he ran the hand on the other side of her face down her neck and over her torso until his fingers found where her clothing left her stomach bare above the pants she wore and lightly caressed back and forth over her waist.

“Have I ever told you-” He murmured in her ear as he took another step closer, “-how much I love seeing you in this outfit?” Arlo curled his fingers around her hip and kept moving his thumb across the skin above it.

“I don’t think so.” Liz breathed, finally regaining her senses somewhat and reaching up to wrap her arms around his shoulders. She smiled as the hand at her side started to sneak further up her stomach and he took her ear in his teeth.

“I _do_ remember,” She continued, “Having told you how much I love seeing you without yours, however.”

He paused, almost chuckled at her, and let out a breath instead, pulling back away from her face to meet her sparkling, teasing eyes with his own.

“Finish your rounds?” She wanted to know, raising her eyebrows.

“Yes.” His reply dropped an octave, their lips only inches apart.

“Then perhaps we should adjourn for the house, mm?”

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t take you right now against this rock.”

“Sand.”

He blinked and pulled back a little farther, “What?”

“Sand.” She repeated and shrugged, “It gets everywhere.”

He glanced down at their feet and the sand of the island before suddenly reaching beneath her and lifting her up off the ground, pinning her to the rock with his body as she wrapped her legs over his hips and gave him a sidelong smile.

“Better?”

“Hm...maybe...”

“How about now?” Arlo began kissing at her again, trailing his lips along the other cheek until he reached her neck and found her turning her head to give him better access to it as his hand sought for her exposed skin again to snake up beneath it and find her chest.

He stopped and sighed, resting his forehead against her collarbone.

“It really _is_ going to get everywhere, isn’t it.” He still had his work clothes on, which meant the fingerless gloves he always wore, which he had been about two seconds away from pulling off so he could feel her better, but his instinct had been to rip them off and toss them _aside_ and that would have meant onto the sand, which...

Liz nodded and he let out a huff when she shifted against him rather purposefully.

“Woman...”

She turned her head to murmur into his ear, “I can think of a perfectly good wall in our house that’s just _begging_ to have something nailed to it...”

He clenched his teeth together and Liz could feel him tense up beneath her hands before she let out a small yelp when he nipped at a place just behind her ear and then lowered her back to the sand before grabbing her hand and dragging her back to the harbor.

“Alright, fine, but _you’re_ what I’m nailing into that wall.”

“I would hope so,” She replied, grinning at the back of his head as he pulled her forward, “Since I haven’t got any other paintings that need put up.”

“A beautiful piece of work you are.” Arlo turned to give her a look, eyes flashing, “I think I know exactly the place to have you.”

“Oh? And where is that?”

“You’ll just have to wait and see, Lizzie.”


	23. Gust: Drinks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Gust speaks with Builder Liz about her father...

Gust eyed Liz in the booth across from him at Django’s, wide awake now despite the fact that when Liz had silently nudged his elbow as the Fireside was wrapping up earlier, she had pulled him from some dream or another he’d all but forgotten now.

“Still want to get drinks after?” She’d whispered to him at the time when he leaned his head in her direction, grabbing his elbow and pulling him away just as soon as she thought their exit wouldn’t seem rude.

Several drinks later and Gust honestly felt surprised she wasn’t passed out. Instead, she seemed to be staring intently across the room at something Gust hadn’t bothered asking her about.

He hadn’t really had a chance to talk to her since his birthday, though he remembered vividly the Martial Arts Tournament the next day and how some twist of fate had landed her being matched up with her husband in the very first round.

To be frank, he fully expected her to wipe the floor with the Captain. She’d won the tournament last year after all, much to everyone’s surprise.

However, to his and everyone’s great astonishment, this year Arlo genuinely went toe-to-toe with her. She obviously had the upper hand the whole time in Gust’s eyes, but as far as he could tell, the two of them took the bout seriously and Arlo actually got at least a couple of decent hits in on her.

Which was twice as many as last year.

Somewhere in his mind during the fight, Gust considered the strange dichotomy of being married to someone and sparring with them as earnestly as the two in the ring were doing, but the thoughts had quickly devolved into picturing the activity at home, which was really just glorified wrestling and somehow ended up with _Gust_ and Liz in the picture instead of Arlo and at that point Gust turned his attention from the fight and immediately switched to asking his sister if she was doing okay and engaging in conversation with her to distract himself.

Her father showed up in town the very next week.

“I’d always wondered where you’d gotten that hair from.” Gust said absently, staring at Liz’s head and realizing as the words slipped past his lips that perhaps he should slow down on the drink in his grasp.

“Hum?”

Gust swallowed, unaware until she blinked and looked over at him he had lifted his glass to his lips again and looking at her over it while taking another gulp.

“Your father.” His eyebrows twitched with some emotion or another when any light that had been in Liz’s eyes when regarding him flattened out at the word. “Uh,” He suddenly lost any of what he had been going to say, vaguely aware through the slight buzzing sensation at the back of his head that if _he_ was 'drunk,' _she_ was _wasted_.

“What about him?” She asked more roughly than he usually heard her in conversation.

“I like your hair.” He replied dumbly, the part of him in the back of his head still coherent starting to throw a fit about how utterly idiotic he sounded right now.

The voice quieted a little when she gave him a sloppy smile and he stared at it, thinking about how pretty she looked and losing focus again until she sighed and reached up to pull one of the strands hanging in front of her ears into view of her own eyes.

“Oh. Right. Dad. Yeah. Mom...” She blinked and he wondered about it for a moment before she said more quietly, “I guess Mom didn’t have hair like this.”

Something about the way she said it gave Gust pause even as she twirled the strand back and forth absently between her fingers while she took another drink and he narrowed his eyes, considering her. He tried to pull together the thoughts he had on the subject.

Strangely enough, he’d never thought to ask her about her family. Didn’t think twice about her showing up to Portia by herself. When he considered it, it seemed no different to him than when he showed up to Atara alone and suddenly he wondered just how similar he and Liz actually were.

“When did she pass?” He asked quietly, remembering how Liz had quietly stood with him over his mother’s grave that first day of Winter and how grateful he was for her silent presence at the time.

Liz let out a breath that fluttered out briefly from between her lips as her glazed-over expression seemed to consider the table beneath her elbow, “The last day of Winter.”

Gust frowned, certain for some reason the day had a significance to him he couldn’t recall.

“Dad tried, I guess. Kept working. I mean, I don’t remember much of it except my Aunt Kendra. He was gone all the time. Then about twelve years ago he,” She puffed up her cheeks and then let out another breath, “He never came back.” She took another drink, unaware Gust was still staring at her, the wheels in his brain too affected by alcohol to turn properly, and her meanwhile thinking about how hard it had been already to be stuck with the older woman all the time, rich or not. But her teenage years might have been less tumultuous if her dad had stayed instead of bowing out at a time when she felt like she could have used his presence the most.

“You’re...exceptionally well-grounded for someone with a childhood like that.”

“You think so?” Another sloppy grin.

He nodded, thinking of his teenage years in Atara.

“But then he just _shows up out of the blue_ and I _hardly recognize him_-” Liz went on to rant about the encounters she had with her father so far: when he showed up a couple of mornings ago and she hadn’t even recognized him with the beard, and then Antoine showed up the morning after that telling her Presley wanted to talk to her about something and she just _knew_ it had to do with her father, so she’d spent the entire morning doing chores in the workyard...

She had told Arlo about everything when he asked her to take a walk with him in the desert the morning her dad showed up, and then the Captain had come out to her workyard the next morning asking her if she was avoiding the guild. 

He had heard Antoine’s conversation with her.

She didn’t know why the prospect of a Builder’s Bout lit such a fire underneath her, but just as soon as she learned the necessities the airplane would require, she had tromped up to the Civil Corps and asked Arlo about jet engine locations. And her dear husband had stopped in the middle of his training session to talk over the logistics with her once he realized what was going on and why she asked.

At this point, Liz was just waiting on Petra to get back to her, though her furnaces needed more time to finish up the last of the materials needed for the thing.

She hadn’t stopped to think about why she was so impassioned about finishing this just as quickly as she did anything else, and she wasn’t about to consider it now as she inundated Gust with her aggravations.

“It’s your birthday.” Gust suddenly said, drunken thoughts coalescing into one single thread that he grasped onto like a man drowning.

“What?” Liz snapped, still in mid-rant about being abandoned by her father.

Luckily for her, Gust didn’t think anything about her tone.

“The last of Winter. It’s your birthday.”

Liz stared at him, not following, “And...?”

Gust pursed his lips.

The only reason he even knew was the same reason he was the only person in town to call her by her given name. And as far as he could tell, in spite of the fact birthdays were heavily celebrated among buddies in Portia, she’d never told anyone her birthday at _all_. But strangely enough, no one ever thought to ask.

Gust had absolutely snooped through her file when his father had told him they had a new Builder moving into town.

He also absolutely forgot about her birthday himself, tending to spend that particular month with both his mother’s grave and his sister as much as he could.

At the present moment, it appeared as if Liz assumed she had told Gust when her birthday was and if he himself had been coherent enough to appreciate it, he certainly would have appreciated not having to explain how he knew.

Honestly, he was so far gone at this point, he wasn’t even sure either one of them would remember this conversation, but he wanted to keep going while he could manage to stay on track.

“Elizabeth...” That certainly got her attention. “...you never met your mother did you?”

Her gaze fell off to the side where she had immediately perked up to look at him when he said her full name.

Gust felt some sort of hitch in his throat and he fought past it, croaking out, “She died giving birth to you, didn’t she?”

He watched as she reached up and wiped a fist at the corner of one of her eyes, hunching her shoulders, and his heart ached a little.

He never would have guessed-

He didn’t think about-

The memory of her standing so resolutely beside him, silent and supportive and-

And of her giving Ginger a gift that day, trying to brighten the sad clouds around his sister even as she insisted the day wasn’t worth celebrating and Liz tried to convince her otherwise.

That interaction seemed so much more poignant to him now.

He doubted Ginger had any idea.

“Elizabeth, I’m so sorry.” He reached across the table for her, but she had taken her arms off it some time ago and his hand came to rest on its surface between them. “I didn’t know- I don’t think anyone knew-”

She shook her head a little, sniffing again and wiping at her eyes trying to get them to stop leaking.

“I just wish he’d go away-” She managed quietly, “Seeing him here-” She heaved a breath, “Reminds me of all- Of it all. Of everything. I hate it.”

Gust’s eyes narrowed over as he watched her, “Do you want me to make him go away?”

The steely tone of his voice rang sharply over Liz’s ears and when she looked up at him, tears in her eyes, she couldn’t mistake the glint to his that somehow conveyed to her if she answered ‘yes,’ he would have gotten up in the next instant and taken care of it.

She let out something akin to a laugh at the prospect and rubbed at her eyes some more.

“N-No.”

Gust softened a touch and huffed a breath out from his nose.

He wished he hadn’t decided to nap during the Fireside earlier that evening, but he couldn’t exactly change that now, not understanding until this conversation the relationship, or lack of one, between his best friend sniffing upset tears across from him and the man with the same color hair as her standing up next to Gale.

He wanted to hate him for putting her through this, but hadn’t _he_ done as much the same thing to his sister? Who’s to say Liz’s father hadn’t blamed _her_ for his wife’s death just like Gust had blamed Ginger’s birth on his mother, Liza’s? And ran away just like Gust because even _seeing_ the baby brought back all of the painful memories and the boiling hatred for the one who had taken away what he felt was most precious to him?

Gust could identify with the man’s reasonings, sure, but Gust had _also_ spent the last few years atoning for his actions, his feelings, making up for time lost with his family and-

“Is he staying?” Gust suddenly wanted to know.

“What?”

“Your father.” Gust tilted his head at her, “Is he back to stay?”

She shook her head and mumbled, “I doubt it. Everything about this town just reminds him of her. He’s not even staying at the house.”

Gust wondered briefly if Liz had been born in that house, if one of the gravestones in the graveyard had been erected for her mother.

“I’m getting another drink!” She announced suddenly, up out of her seat faster than Gust was able to process.

“No, I, Elizabeth, I really don’t think you should-”

She was already several steps past their booth by the time Gust could scramble up out of his seat to chase after her.

~!**!~

Gust stood at the door to Liz’s home for a moment before deciding to knock at it with the toe of his shoe instead of trying to jostle her around so he could get a hand free, and he hoped Arlo was either awake or a light enough sleeper to hear the taps he made against it.

In either case, he heard some sort of acknowledgement he thought was some variation of ‘Coming!’ and waited patiently as the rustling and footsteps came closer, only glancing down at Liz’s face when she shifted against him, but felt satisfied she still stayed deeply in her slumber.

Arlo didn’t mean to yawn in the midst of opening the front door, but it happened, and he tried to cover it up, apologizing and wiping at his eyes to try and clear them before blinking at his wife in the other’s arms and shaking his head.

“You guys went drinking, right?” He let out a sigh, “Thanks for looking out for her.”

Gust nodded, not taking any particular note of the half-dressed, sweat-pant wearing, bleary-eyed redhead on the other side of the threshold, looking down at the lightly snoring bundle in his arms as Arlo leaned into the doorframe and stared at her, a hint of melancholy passing over his features.

“She seems especially upset by the arrival of her father.” Gust noted, similarly turning his gaze down onto the woman he held.

A nod from Arlo, who stood studying her face, neither of the two men thinking a single thing about how she wasn’t being handed over yet as they stood talking about her while she slept.

“I figured that’s what it was. She mentioned seeing if you were free for a drink after Fireside since I wasn’t going to make it.” He smiled a bit, “I figured of all people you’d be the most likely to be able to keep her out of trouble.”

Gust huffed, “I apologize. I wasn’t able to convince her to stop, nor did she acquiesce to my suggestions of switching to water.”

“Ha,” Arlo breathed out a laugh, “No need for the apology. I would have been more surprised to hear she actually listened to someone about either of those things. She has a stubborn streak a mile long.”

“I imagine she’s likely to wake up cranky.”

“Nothing makes her more unbearable than a hangover.” Arlo said rather fondly, “Here, hand her over, I’ll make sure she gets to bed at least.”

Gust passed Liz over, trying not to look at the smile Arlo was giving her as, after some brief shifting, he cradled her closely to his chest with one arm somehow.

“Did you know her mother passed away in childbirth?” Gust asked suddenly.

Arlo said he did, “Though, I hadn’t found out about it until a couple of days ago. In this house, apparently, according to Presley.” He added. “Makes sense why I never knew about it. Presley told me her father took off with the infant in the middle of the night. Left a letter, but was gone the very same day they buried his wife.”

It was Gust’s turn to nod, thinking about how Arlo had grown up in the more rural area of Portia, and how Gust and his mother had spent a lot of his childhood traveling together around the Free Cities. Any stories or interactions either one of them might have had with Maurice, Liz’s father, would have been few and far between and at an age where they were all but faded from one or the other’s minds due to growing distance from the experiences.

“Thanks again, Gust.”

They met one another’s gaze and Arlo’s sincerity had Gust nodding back.

“She doesn’t tell a lot of people about herself. Just kind of walks around with everything all bottled up all the time. I’m really glad she felt like she could tell you, too. I wish she’d open up to more people, I think it’d be good for her.” He shrugged and gave a half-smile, “I dunno. I guess I should say something to her about it. She talked to you, so it isn’t completely a lost cause, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

They exchanged farewells and Gust started walking back up the path towards Peach Plaza, hands in his pockets as he wandered up the hill towards home.


	24. Arlo: Winter (Rated: E)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Arlo comes back after his exams...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is rated E for Explicit Sexual Content.
> 
> Aaaaand, here's where I start to expand on the plot of the game, moving beyond where the game "ends" and actually get to begin heading towards the original idea that popped into my brain while I was playing this time that made me want to start writing this in the first place, hah! 
> 
> Took me long enough xD
> 
> You might have been wondering why the plot was advancing so quickly and truthfully when I started out this second play through of MTAP, I actually made it a goal of mine to move through the game's content as quickly as possible, and then once I started writing--already having an end goal I wanted to reach in regards to the direction this story is going--I specifically wanted to see if I could power through the current content as it stands on PC at the end of 2019 fast enough to reach the end of it all before Arlo took his Flying Pigs exam the second time so I could get the timing of any scenes I wanted to touch on in the right order as I was writing. 
> 
> And now...here we are.
> 
> I super appreciate everyone who has taken the time to come along for this fic and if you've enjoyed it so far, I hope you continue to follow along on this harebrained adven-chaa!~

Arlo stretched his arms above his head as he walked away from the port and clasped his hands together behind his head. 

He moved up the road towards Portia proper, deciding the walk in the bright, crisp Winter sun would be well worth the time and effort, and knowing the ceremony he returned for wasn’t scheduled until much later that afternoon anyway.

His mind wandered as he meandered lazily, grateful for the slow pace afforded to him after nearly a whirlwind of the prior week.

He passed his exam.

The very remembrance of it sent a surge of excitement through him that the insanity of the first week of Winter had not been able to dampen. 

After Liz’s Pa left, certain things had slowed down and he and his wife picked up the pace on their training, or rather _his_ training, spending every free minute they had working their way through The Deepest Ruin and trying to see just how far they could get each time.

He smiled at the thought of those days, almost a blur of activity in his mind sometimes punctuated by visits to the hot springs when their muscles had grown weary and sore.

Everything flew by and before he knew it he was giving Liz a hug as she wished him luck and then was off on Wuwa’s boat to head to Vega 5 and pick up a flight to Lucien.

A quick telegram back to the Civil Corps when he passed the exam was all he had time for, though he crafted letters during the following days to send when he could, sacrificing precious sleep to finish them.

One to Liz that contained all of his excitement and gratitude and the details he could spare room for, about how they immediately set him on a mission as a Junior member accompanying a couple more Senior ones and he didn’t know when he would be back.

One to the mayor apologizing for abandoning his position, but explaining the Council would send him a more detailed missive in regards to replacing Arlo as Captain, as well as the application for hiring someone to fill the newly vacant spot.

He sent one to the Civil Corps as well, telling Sam and Remington if they were interested, they should apply for the position and he would support either one of them whole-heartedly.

The sight of the workshop just up the road and the thought of getting to share his excitement and gratitude for his wife’s contributions in person had Arlo grinning widely and quickening his pace, before long hefting himself over the stone fence and making a beeline for the front door to get inside.

He called her name, checked around the corner into the adjoining room and then walked back outside, huffing a little at her absence and sweeping his eyes over the yard, much cleaner now ever since the addition of The Factory.

The thought of it had him wondering if she was inside the newest building, tinkering with something, and he figured he might as well check before he decided to spend the few remaining hours free scouring some random part of the countryside looking for her.

He trotted around the house, eyes brightening as the door to the building he moved towards opened and Liz stepped blinking into the brilliant morning sun.

“Lizzie?” Arlo stopped, completely overcome by the sight of her and barely managing to get her name out at all.

Liz froze, half in and half out of the doorway and Arlo watched as her whole expression lit up and the two of them could hardly breathe.

She yelled his name as she dashed across the yard and tackled him, Arlo laughing as she squeezed her arms around his neck and he wrapped his around her back after the ‘oof’ of her impact against him that he’d braced himself for, swinging her around in a circle as the two of them excitedly spoke over one another.

“-and I almost couldn’t believe it, I had to have them read me the telegram twice-”

“-that I actually made it, but I couldn’t even tell you right away and-”

Arlo stopped and grinned at her, the two of them catching their breath.

He leaned down into her face and kissed her nose.

“I’m so proud of you, Arlo.” She squeezed a little harder at his neck as he kissed her.

“I literally could not have done it without you, Lizzie.” He pulled back so he could rest his forehead against hers and they sat together for a moment just breathing.

“...are you busy?”

“I mean, I’ve decided I’m not now.” She flashed him a smile. “You’re not staying for very long, yeah?”

He nodded, “I’m officially only here to see them pass the office of Captain to Sam.”

“And unofficially?” Her eyes gleamed as he lowered his face her direction again.

“Unofficially,” He softly kissed her cheek, “I’d really like to show my _wife_ just how much I _appreciated_ her support, if she doesn’t have anything better to do.”

She shook her head as he moved back over and paused just shy of her lips, “The only thing on my to-do list today at this point is _you_.”

He kissed her briefly, just long enough to feel her stretch up to try and continue it when he pulled away, “Let’s go cross that out then, hm?”

“Crossing you out sounds so harsh.” She murmured back, “I’d much rather put checkmarks all over the page.”

Arlo chuckled, already carrying her back towards their house, as she lifted her legs to wrap them around his waist, “Noted.”

~!**!~

Arlo moaned as Liz fully sat herself down on his lap, finally sheathing him completely inside her after rotating her hips teasingly with her warmth circling just around his tip enough times to have him verbally protest her delay.

His toes twitched into the carpet beside the bed where he’d sat down moments ago after having spent who knows how long making sure she knew just exactly how much he appreciated and had missed her.

Several times, in fact.

It meant that now when she slid home, she was slick and more than accepting of him, if still so tight as to make him especially aware of the feeling of her delicate flesh so embraced around his throbbing cock.

She stretched her arms above her head and he caught one of her nipples between his lips, sucking gently at it before she shifted over him and he let her go, watching as, after scooting her bottom towards him, she arched her back and leaned away from him, draping herself down his legs and over the side of the bed.

Another sound left Arlo’s lips as he stared at her, one of his hands sliding down the taut planes of her stomach and appreciating the firmness of her, a body sculpted by the hours of work she subjected herself to.

He might have drank in the sight of her longer without even thinking about moving at all if she hadn’t tightened her muscles around him and his hands instinctively shifted over her hips.

Luckily for him, this position afforded him the luxury of being able to have her absolutely on full display for his eyes while also putting him in complete control of their movements, which he hadn’t been expecting in this moment, but certainly didn’t _mind_ her handing to him so freely as she had.

Arlo switched between holding her still and thrusting his hips in and out of the apex of her thighs and moving _her_ on him, as his focus meandered between feasting his eyes all along the erotic curves of her body, watching her face as the heat between them grew, and looking down at the place where they were joined together.

The last one he found himself gazing at the most, truthfully, able to see up so close this undeniably satisfying view of alternately shifting his own body up to hers or using the strength of his arms to bring her back and forth off of him, knowing he wasn’t going to last too much longer what with the way he could directly witness how the most feminine parts of her caressed the sides of his cock when she got further off of him, and then became slightly parted to welcome him back into her soft, wet haven when she took more of him in-

“Arlo...”

The second syllable of his name became a low moan and he found himself echoing the noise at the back of his throat as he could start to feel a few tremors beginning somewhere inside of her to start her muscles clenching around him and he shifted himself around a bit so he could pick up the pace like the both of them wanted him to do.

In this position, all Liz could _do_ was feel, surrendering complete control of herself over to Arlo and unable to stop herself, when her eyes didn’t close as the sensations overwhelmed her, watching him from where she all but rested on the floor between his legs.

Unable to really reach those tightly muscled arms herself, watching the ripple of them under his skin and the same sorts of shifting all along his shoulders and torso, seeing him occasionally switch between holding her still and moving her back and forth over him, Liz would slide her own hands down the front of herself, pleased when Arlo would look up to watch her do it, and sometimes feather the tips of her fingers across her stomach between her hips or take ahold of her own breast and massage it as Arlo continued drawing sounds out of her she couldn’t rightly remember making after they left her throat.

When her eyes would flutter closed, she could almost _see_ all of the tingling fire he was shooting, wave after wave, through her veins as the sensation of his thick, rigid member melded into her soft, yielding flesh over and over again, sometimes almost so slowly she thought she could feel each molecule of the inside of her moving along him until he was nearly all the way out of her before he would either pull her back towards him or push himself inside her.

As she felt the delicious heat beginning to rise in her belly, his name dripped out of her mouth and that seemed to snap him out of whatever mesmerized state he had lustfully drawn himself into watching the repeated movements, and he obligingly started picking up speed until the sounds of their enjoyment mixed more abundantly with the sounds of their meeting flesh as he finally was all but pounding into her. 

Acutely aware of how her thighs quivered against him, a handful of thrusts later and Liz let out a strangled cry as in her release she felt her muscles clutch at him, drawing him after her until at the last Arlo gripped her hips more tightly and emptied his seed into her in powerful, jerking bursts.

It took only a moment for Liz to feel Arlo slide one hand under her lower back and try and lift her up towards him and she did not hesitate to help, to pull herself up back to him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders to bury her face in his neck as he first hugged her close, then began shifting his hands all over her back and rear and thighs and every other bit of skin he could reach.

He felt her breathing slow finally alongside his where hers was curling around his skin, her hair sticking to the sweat of his body in places as he nuzzled his nose into her.

She pulled back just far enough to kiss him all the way up the top of his shoulder to his ear, tugging at it once just to hear him murmur her name as wonderfully as he did before she kept covering him with sweet kisses until she found his lips and drew her own over them several times, which he answered in kind.

“God, you’re amazing.” He shifted back far enough to look into her eyes.

“_Me_?” She exclaimed in mock-protest, “I didn’t do a single damn thing. _You’re _the amazing one.” Liz arched an eyebrow and gave him a lascivious look as she ran her hands down his shoulders and arms, squeezing at their firmness even as he flexed against her searching with a grin of his own.

She arched her back a little as he did it, her lips humming happily together as she felt the very tips of her breasts squishing so pleasantly against him before she snaked her hands between the two of them there and continued testing the feel of his chest and torso and sides.

Liz earned herself such a satisfied sigh from him as she did so, practically making one of her own, and she wrapped her arms around him once she reached the narrowest part of his hips to clasp her fingers together at the small of his back as she gazed into his eyes.

The next sigh _was_ from her, but it was one of sad longing.

She didn’t even have to say it.

Not that she would.

His flight out of Vega 5 would leave early in the morning and he’d already arranged with Wuwa meeting him at the boat in plenty of time to make it. The only reason he’d been given this leave was for the sake of Portia’s Civil Corps needing a new Captain as soon as possible.

Their precious few hours alone together before the Civil Corps’ ceremony were quickly dwindling.

“I love you.” He reached up and cupped her cheek in his hand, looking up at her where she’d come to rest her forehead against his.

“I love you, too. Arlo, I’m _so_ proud of you.” She grinned widely and squeezed him until he could hardly breathe, leaving him to let out bits of gasping laughter at her praise.

He tipped his face up towards her and before he kissed her again, he whispered, “Thank you.”


	25. Gust and Arlo: Arlo's Return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Arlo approaches Gust...

“Say, Captain!” Albert exclaimed as the familiar redhead opened the door to the construction offices just short of his own nose, “Fancy seeing you here!”

“Captain no longer, Albert.” Arlo corrected him with a grin.

“Oh yeah, that’s right! Congratulations again, mate!”

Gust could hear the pair near the door exchanging a hearty handshake, but didn’t bother letting it distract him from his pencil and paper and drawings.

“The Flying Pigs!” Albert let out a whistle, “What an honor. Well, what has you back in town? Nothing needs surveying here, I hope.”

“No, no, I’m just back on a bit of a break. It’s been all go since I passed the test at the last of the Fall, but they’re trying to let me have a little time off before it’s back into the fray.”

“Well, I don’t envy you _that_ life, that’s for sure.”

“How’s Sophie?”

“Albert.”

Arlo glanced up to see the blonde he’d been seeking hadn’t so much as turned around from his workspace.

Albert smacked his own forehead with a free hand, “I’m sorry, Arlo. I’d love to catch up, but Gust’s right: I’ve _got_ to get these plans out on the next boat. You didn’t need anything from me, did you?”

Arlo reassured him he didn’t and waved Albert on as he moved towards the back of the split-level office and Gust’s direction.

Earlier that morning on his return, Arlo had made the trek up to the clinic at the top of town when dropping by the house had turned up no Liz to speak of, bringing some supplies Dr. Xu had requested and stopping to catch up for a bit.

“Have you seen Liz?”

Arlo thought the question odd at the time and he tilted his head, confessing, “I stopped at the house first, but she wasn’t there. I wasn’t expecting to be back, so she has no idea I’m here yet. I’m sure I’ll run into her or at the very least catch her back at home later this evening.”

Dr. Xu nodded.

“What makes you ask?”

“I...well...to tell you the truth, Arlo, I’ve been worried...”

Apparently, little to no one had _seen_ Liz much since the earlier parts of Winter, her appearances in town becoming fewer and farther between until she hardly slipped into the commissions’ office early in the morning and back once more later in the day if the fulfillment required it.

“She brought me a completed request once last week, and...I don’t think she’s doing very well at all. Tried to get her to stop and talk to me for a minute once I noticed the circles under her eyes and the obvious fatigue. She waved away my concerns and just said she hadn’t been sleeping well, but I think she’s been working herself to the bone on top of it.”

Arlo frowned. He’d been back the first week of Winter at one point to facilitate the changing of the guard with the Civil Corps, but just for the one day and then he’d had to book it back out to the field and frankly, he hardly remembered what had happened in those twenty-four hours, it had been such a whirlwind.

Communication was difficult because of the nature of the job, so there had been little way to keep in touch with _anyone_ once they really got out there away from civilization, much less his own wife.

Thanking Dr. Xu and leaving with much on his mind, Arlo ran into Remington and Captain Sam and the story with them was as much the same: grateful to see him, a brief chance at catching up with the promise of stories over drinks if he didn’t have to leave too soon, and wondering if he’d happened to see Liz.

“I run into her out on patrol every once in a while.” Captain Sam told him. “She always seems too distracted to notice me, or maybe too focused on what she’s doing is a better way of putting it, but Dr. Xu is right.” Arlo had told them of the doctor’s concerns, “I don’t think she’s doing all that great, Arlo. She hardly says two words to anybody and she locks herself away as much as not these days.”

“If I’m not mistaken, she’s taken a shine to diving The Deepest Ruin.” Remington added. “Seen her go in there once last week and I’ll be damned if she didn’t come back from that direction as I was riding the perimeter of town after dark.”

When they offered to take him to lunch, Arlo had declined, saying he still had a couple of things to do around town, and once they parted ways he headed for the construction office, wheels in his head turning quickly.

“Gale tells me you’re just back from Atara, Gust.” Arlo had checked in on the Mayor that morning as well. “I guess I had forgotten you go there on business.”

“Occasionally.” Gust glanced up to see Arlo leaning against the table to his right, toying with something in his hands that Gust didn’t care enough to scrutinize.

There had been a moment after he and Liz were married when Arlo stumbled across a somewhat wrinkled Heart Knot stuffed in a drawer somewhere.

After a bit of teasing on his part, and her rebuffing him, flustered and telling him it wasn’t what he thought, Arlo actually managed to get her to confess to her uncertain intentions with it, and only after insisting he did in fact want to know the whole story, genuinely curious, managed to get at least some of the details about what had been her feelings for the man currently hunched over his drawings.

Gust had just as quickly returned his gaze to his work. “They don’t expect me back for at least another season.”

“Perfect.”

“Pardon?” Gust actually looked up as Arlo put down an apple between himself and the blonde.

As far as Arlo could tell, he’d only had the upper hand because he managed to scrounge up the courage at the time to ask Liz out, since she had apparently been in such limbo as to believe no one in Portia might want to consider her a romantic interest at all, himself included.

The architect included.

She would be upset with him for prying, probably, but after having heard more than one Portian express concern for her wellbeing, honestly Arlo thought he had come up with a pretty solid solution, assuming everyone involved agreed to it.

“I know this is going to sound crazy, but hear me out first, okay?”

The tone Arlo used intrigued him and Gust turned to face the former Captain, one delicate eyebrow raising higher on his face.

“I’m listening.”

~!**!~

“You’re insane.”

“You’re not saying no.”

“This is ridiculous. Is this really what you came in here to ask me?”

“Yes.”

Gust narrowed his eyes up at the other, but Arlo didn’t appear to be lying.

“And this doesn’t bother you at all? Not in the slightest?”

“If it did, I can assure you I never would have brought it up.”

Gust fell silent for a moment, eyes darting off to the side but not looking at anything in particular.

“You didn’t immediately dismiss it, so it can’t be all that bad.” Arlo folded his arms over his chest.

“I can’t believe I’m even considering this.” Gust covered his face with a hand as he sighed, “Do you have any idea what people might say?”

Arlo shrugged, “Does it matter what they say? We’re all grown adults here. Assuming _she_ doesn’t have a problem with it, we’re all _consenting_ adults too.”

Gust eyed Arlo, “You mean you haven’t said anything to her about this?”

Another shrug, as if it were obvious, “I just got back in town this morning and I have seen neither hide nor hair of Liz the Builder.”

Gust let out another long sigh, “Then what on earth makes you think she would agree to it?”

“Call it a hunch.” Arlo gave him a sidelong grin, “A hunch that tells me as long as she knew _I_ didn’t have a problem with it and _you_ didn’t have a problem with it, she’ll come around.”

When Gust didn’t answer immediately, Arlo stared at him before uncrossing his arms and shifting like he might stand up, “Look, if you really have a problem with it-”

“No,” Gust huffed, but didn’t look at him, “No, it’s- it’s not that. I...” He got quieter, “I’m quite aware she hasn’t been doing well lately. I just didn’t know what to do about it.”

“Well, now you know how you can help!” Arlo spread his arms wide, “Happy to be of assistance in providing an answer. And anyway, it isn’t exactly something that’s unheard of-”

“It is around _here_.” Gust grumbled, thinking of the stark differences, in his mind, between some place like Atara and the small town atmosphere of Portia, no matter what his father tried to claim.

“That you know of.” Arlo gave Gust a sly smile that made the blonde blink up at him as if the idea was unfathomable. Before he could ask, the former Captain went on, “Do you want to drop by this evening so we can talk to her about it?”

“_We_?”

“Well, sure.” He raised an eyebrow at him, “I suppose I could just mention it to her myself, but she might not believe me unless you’re there to confirm we’re in agreement about it.”

Gust let out a noise and hid his face in his palm again.

Arlo laughed and tapped him goodnaturedly on the shoulder with the back of his hand, “That’s the spirit!”

“You’re insane.”

“You still haven’t said no.”

“We’re both insane.”

“Now, I’ll drink to that!”

When Gust suddenly stared at him, considering it, Arlo’s lips widened into another smile and he pointed at the other, “But you have to promise me you’ll be sober by the time we talk to her.”

Gust’s gaze darted away, “I feel as if that defeats the purpose of it.”

Arlo shook his head, “We’ll have to convince her we’re both serious about this, and consenting to something while drunk isn’t really consent at all, in the end.”

Gust...hadn’t thought about it like that before.

“And we _are_ serious about this?” He studied Arlo’s face.

The other man’s expression darkened a touch, “Quite.” It was his turn to sigh, “She’d never let me quit the Flying Pigs. She knows that deep down it’s one of the few things in life I’ve ever really wanted. But I will be the first to admit she’s the entire reason I got in, and I just want her taken care of, you know? And I won’t always be here to do it myself, I guess, and, well,” He flashed Gust an almost timid smile, “If it’s going to be anyone, I can’t think of anybody better than you.”

“I haven’t the faintest idea what makes you say that.” Gust grumbled, catching a strange sort of look passing over Arlo’s face.

“Tell you what,” Arlo looked at the clock, “From what I understand, Liz isn’t supposed to be back at the house until late-”

“She’s been overworking herself.” Gust asserted, Arlo nodding.

“You finish up whatever you have to do here and then meet me over at Django’s for a drink or three. We’ll grab a booth in the corner and I’ll tell you _exactly_ why _you_ were the first person I thought of.”

Gust took stock of the time, he had a couple more hours before closing, and then gave Arlo a sharp nod, “Deal.”

“Excellent! I’ll let you get back to it, then.” He gently rapped the backs of his fingers on the desk behind him before pushing himself up to stand and leaving Gust to return to his work.

~!**!~

Gust gave Django a nod in greeting when he walked in the door a couple of hours later, thanking the other for the offer of sitting wherever he liked. He ordered a gin and tonic from the man before looking around the room and catching Arlo’s eye.

The former Captain was sitting with Sam and Remington, though he had stood, stein in hand, once Gust entered the establishment, exchanging his last few words with them as Gust walked his direction.

“The last hour or two turn out alright?” Arlo asked him as he came to a stop beside the other, giving him a kind clap on the shoulder in greeting.

“As expected.” Gust replied mildly, glancing at Arlo’s hand before nodding to the other two, still seated in the booth. “Captain. Remington.”

“Hey, Gust!”

“Hello, Gust. How was Atara?”

“Uneventful, as usual.” He turned back to Sam. “I don’t think I’ve had the opportunity as of yet to extend my congratulations, Captain, so congratulations.”

“Sam is still totally fine, Gust.” Sam waved a hand at him, her face flushed with drink. “Thanks!”

“Thanks for keeping me company, you two.” Arlo grinned, “Now, I promised Gust a few drinks, so we’re just going to adjourn to the back.”

“It’s good to see you, Arlo.”

Remington nodded his agreement with Sam, “You’re not allowed to leave Portia this time without sharing another couple of drinks, got it?”

“Got it.” He began moving towards the booth at the back of the main room with Gust following after, not noticing the two Civil Corps members exchange curious looks.

Django reached the pair with Gust’s drink in hand just as they went to sit down, Arlo telling the owner Gust was on _his_ tab for the evening before Django moved back to his place behind the counter.

“Alright, then.” Gust said after taking a long swig of his drink and replacing it back on the table. “Spill.”

“Not one to beat around the bush, eh?” Arlo leaned back and stretched his arms out along either side of the booth before bending them and resting his elbows behind him, scrutinizing Gust across the way, who only returned his gaze with a neutral expression, but a raised eyebrow.

“Do you _happen_ to remember a day last Winter when you walked by Liz and I in front of the Commerce Guild?”

If he was expecting Gust to flinch, he did not get so much as a blink as Gust countered with an eyebrow still raised, “You mean the day you were asking her if she’d be interested in dating you and she said yes?”

“Yes, that’s exactly the day I mean.” Arlo grinned.

“Absolutely not. No memory of it whatsoever.”

Arlo’s eyes danced with mirth as the side of Gust’s lips twitched into a smirk and Arlo found it somewhat surprising that the architect was _joking_ with him.

He went on.

“After talking with Liz, I suppose I should have expected that answer.” To be truthful, he had in fact been going for some sort of shock-factor and he was only a little disappointed not to have the slightest reaction from the other. Arlo took another long drink from his stein as if to purposefully enjoy the look of questioning Gust gave him as long as he could manage before putting down the beverage and leaning forward conspiratorially as if anyone might be nearby who could hear them, “What would you say, then, if I told you Liz had been carrying a Heart Knot around in her pocket for two weeks, too scared to approach _anyone_, much less either of us, with the same question?”

Arlo knew at that point Gust had shut down completely, the blonde on the other side of the table staring blankly at him without so much as a muscle movement, and Arlo gave him another wide smile as he leaned back again and waited for the processor to reboot.

Eventually Gust blinked and refocused on Arlo’s smug face, disbelief still reflected in his green eyes.

Just like his luck with asking Liz to hang out with him, where Arlo always seemed to beat him to it, Gust knew already that Arlo had similarly beaten him to asking her out, and subsequently marrying her, but the very idea that Liz had been...pining for _him_?

Gust swallowed the rest of his drink without further thought and didn’t notice Arlo waving at Django for refills of what they had.

“I found a Heart Knot tucked away in a drawer sometime this past Fall,” Arlo continued when it seemed obvious Gust's shut down seemed to make him incapable of coming up with anything in reply, “And got the whole story. I for one am convinced she’s telling the truth: she didn’t think anyone would be genuinely interested in her-”

“That’s ridiculous.” Was it, though? How long had he spent in limbo afraid _she_ might not feel the same as him?

Arlo shrugged, “-and kept putting it off.”

_Boy, that sounds familiar, _Gust thought.

“She told me if she thought for an instant one or the other of us might have actually considered dating her, she would have done something about it. She said if _you_ had so much as glanced her way that day when you went walking by-” Arlo leaned forward again, something of a triumph in his eyes. “-she might not have told me yes so readily.”

Gust blinked at Arlo again, thinking back to those moments so heart-breakingly burned into his retina that he had been unable to completely shake the emotional memory of them.

His eyes narrowed at Arlo’s expression, but then Django was putting drinks down in front of them and before he could say anything, Gust had thrown back his, the second gin and tonic gone in a matter of four gulps.

Django blinked at him, frozen and still staring, which was just as well for Gust, who wiped his wrist across his mouth and looked up at him.

“Something stronger.” He told him, just short of slamming the glass back down on the table and ignoring the man’s lifted eyebrows. 

Gust had no doubt his behavior would likely get passed around town before the evening was through and right now he didn’t care one way or the other.

He had a lot to process.

And it was seeming more and more likely there would be much more, perhaps much worse, whispered about him in the near future.

Django glanced over at Arlo who gave him a winning smile as if to reassure him everything was perfectly normal, then gave a nod, adding, “Why not another of the same for him, but line up a couple of shots each? It’s a celebratory evening for me, barkeep, and Gust here has agreed to indulge with me. He’s just trying to catch up.” He slid his now-empty stein in Django’s direction and pulled the new one closer to himself, “Surprise us. Wave me over when you’ve got ‘em ready.”

“Sure thing, Arlo!”

“You’re enjoying this.”

Arlo watched the bartender head back to his station, knowing Gust still leveled the same stare as earlier on him.

Actually, he hadn’t really ever given the initial one up.

“What makes you say that?” Arlo sniffed and ran his finger underneath his nose a couple of times as if he had an itch there, looking over at Gust out of the corner of his eye.

Gust’s gaze narrowed again and he did not say anything for another beat.

“Why?”

“Why, what?” Arlo wasn’t actually sure where the other meant to steer the conversation.

“Why are you enjoying all of this so much?”

Arlo hid his grin behind his stein, taking another long draw of it.

“You had a crush on _that_ pompous ass?” Arlo remembered teasing Liz at some point last month.

_Was it really only a month?_ A lot had happened.

Her face at the time had immediately turned beet red, already taken off-guard by the entire conversation, but the two of them had never been anything but completely honest with one another and to be fair, he had definitely made it up to her later.

“I-I mean, y-yes,” She couldn’t look at him, “But it- He’s not _that_ bad.”

“Maybe not to _you_, Lizzie.” He stuck his face in hers just to see if he could fluster her further, his voice dropping an octave as he slipped his hand beneath her shirt to pull her up against him, shifting a little and enjoying the effect he had on her. He had leaned down to stick his lips closer to her ear, breathing over her neck for a moment, “But I’d venture to say you could even convince Higgins of your worth if he’d just stop and _look_ at you.”

Frankly, her apparent inability to consider herself as anything worth anyone’s time had been the biggest surprise to Arlo, himself finding her particularly self-confident in most other things.

“Don’t you think it’s all even a little bit amusing?” Arlo grinned at Gust.

“None of it bothers you.” It wasn’t a question, but the way Gust said it almost seemed like he couldn’t fathom it.

Did it bother him he’d had a rival for her affections when he confessed?

Not particularly. He hadn’t even been aware of it at the time, and it was in the past besides. 

He and Liz were so open with one another, had built up so much trust and respect, and honestly Arlo didn’t think for an instant, if he knew her like he thought he did, that she gave so much as a single thought to anything besides him and her being exclusively together.

And before today, he hadn’t really either.

He stared across the table at Gust steadily before answering:

“Not one single bit.”

Liz would tear him up one side and down the other if he so much as breathed a word of quitting the Flying Pigs, but if she was all alone in that house, maybe even having to deal with some nightmares of her own, _on_ her own...

...and with those concerns all but confirmed by the ones around her...

Well, why _wouldn’t_ Arlo try and come up with a solution?

Maybe Gust was just the most convenient idea he had, but so far...the blonde hadn’t specifically turned him away.

Before Gust could manage to say anything else, he saw Arlo’s gaze lift and give a nod and a smile presumably to Django over his shoulder as the former Captain reached across the table when he started to stand up to tap Gust on that same shoulder.

“C’mon you. One of those things is on _fire_.”


	26. Gust and Arlo: Arlo's Return II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Gust and Arlo speak with Liz...

“I had one too, you know.”

“Hm?” Arlo glanced over his glass at the blonde, who was speaking remarkably well for someone with five shots and at least as many mixed drinks floating around somewhere in his body.

“A Heart Knot. In my pocket that day.”

Arlo hurried to swallow his mouthful, stupid smile plastered across his face, “No shit! Yeah?” He slapped the table between them once, “Ha!”

He may not have _sounded_ drunk, but when Gust took another sip and looked over at Arlo, the former Captain could certainly see it in the other’s eyes.

“Yeah. I’d had it for, like, a week.”

Not to mention the fact that the way Gust waved his hand in the air to gesticulate the ‘approximately’ portion of his sentence wouldn’t have fooled anyone as to just how far Gust was gone.

“But I kept coming up with excuses not to tell her.” He paused. “I’m the best at that.”

Arlo just laughed, “I bought that damn thing the night before and figured, if she was interested, great, and if not...” He shrugged, “I couldn’t see her unable to be friends with me if she wasn’t, and that first thing was the bit most important to me anyway.”

“I didn’t have any interest in her at first, but then she kept coming around.” He sounded irritated, annoyed by it, but as Arlo looked at his face, he was surprised to see the other actually give a little smile at the memory.

Arlo found himself smiling back, “When did it happen?”

“Hum?” Gust focused his glassy-eyed gaze on Arlo’s face.

“When did you come to think of her as a friend?”

Gust’s eyebrows met together on his forehead as he appeared to seriously consider the question and have trouble coming up with an answer.

“I- ...I don’t know. I-” _Hm._

“Don’t give yourself a headache, there!” Arlo laughed again and waved his hand at the other.

“Do _you_ have a moment when you realized you were friends?” Gust asked curiously after a moment of quiet between them and being unable himself to think of any one particular thing.

“Mm-” Arlo swallowed another gulp from his stein, “No. I suppose not. Never really thought about it before just now, it just kind of happened. Between all the time she spent helping out the Civil Corps and asking me how I was doing, it just kind of went from there for us. It kind of came to me that I enjoyed spending time with her.”

Gust nodded, eyes cast off to the side, “I...I think that’s what happened with us too.” He huffed, “She always managed to get me to talk to her even when I didn’t have a single damn thing to say.”

“Right?” Arlo was grinning again, “Isn’t that just the _worst?_ Minding my own damn business on my patrols and she just waltzes up out of nowhere and strikes up a conversation. Doesn’t even keep me from my rounds, just falls in step like it were the easiest thing in the world and wants to see how I’m doing.”

Another nod, “She would join Ginger and I for our walks down to the river. I couldn’t even tell you how, just...she’s not there and then suddenly she’s there, engaging my sister in conversation and somehow including me as well.”

“She’s a damn busybody.”

“I’ve never heard her speak poorly of anyone in this town.”

“She would go out of her way to make me my favorite food.”

“She knows me better than I know myself.”

Arlo sighed as he lifted his drink up to his face, “Ain’t that the truth.”

Gust eyed him for a moment, eventually pulling his own glass closer to himself and staring down at it contemplatively.

“...you really think she’s going to be even remotely interested in...in having me look out for her?”

Arlo raised an eyebrow at him, “I mean, I suppose if you want to put it that way when we talk to her you can. I’d like us to be on the same page when we go into this, though, and frankly I was completely expecting the two of you to start dating once you’re settled, unless you’re just not interested in her like that anymore.”

Gust flinched, “I-”

“Look,” Arlo rested his arms on the table and bent forward closer to him, “She’s not doing well. You know it. I know it. The whole _town_ knows it. She would _kill_ me if I so much as even whispered consideration of quitting the Flying Pigs and coming back.” He looked down into his drink and sighed again, “It isn’t like she doesn’t have _friends_ here. She knows everybody at this point. And it isn’t like those friends wouldn’t check up on her when they can, but...” He nudged the stein with a finger, “I think it’s hard for her to come home when there’s nothing to come home to.

“Like I said when I brought it up at the office: if she doesn’t mind having a new roommate, I want you to move in with her. But I’m not stupid. I know for a fact she cares deeply for you. If something happens between you two while I’m gone,” He shrugged, “So be it. That’s between you and her, at the end of the day. I’ll have nothing to do with it.” He finally grinned, “I won’t even be there after all.”

“But what about when you-”

Arlo held up a hand, “Let’s not talk specifics until we’re at the house. She should be back pretty soon, actually. I should go ahead and go. _You_ on the other hand, need to sit here and sober up a bit and then follow after, you hear?”

“Sure, fine, whatever.” Gust grumbled.

“I mean it.” Arlo had lifted his beverage up again, but pointed at Gust with one of the fingers wrapped around it, “She needs to be able to take you seriously and if she thinks I got you drunk just to get you to agree to my bullshit-”

“It _is_ bullshit.” Gust interrupted thoughtfully.

Arlo flashed him another grin when he noticed Gust’s eyes glimmering with amusement, but he kept going, “Then she won’t take either one of us seriously, and we _do_ want to help her, right?”

Gust sighed into his mug, “Right.”

Gulping down the last of his drink and all but slamming it down on the table, Arlo started to stand up, “I’m going to go pay our tab, then. If you’re not at the house in an hour or two, I’m coming back to drag your ass over there, got it?”

Gust nodded, in the midst of finishing the last of his beverage.

“I’ll send Django over with some water for you, yeah? You’re, uh, looking a little rough.” Arlo stood up unsteadily and Gust scoffed at him as he made his way back across the tavern to strike up a conversation with Django the architect couldn’t hear.

~!**!~

Gust stepped out into the cold Winter’s evening and watched his breath crystallize on the air after the chill swept through his lungs on the inhale and seemed to sting even his toes.

Dislike of the weather aside, it did help clear his mind further from its lingering drunken haze as he glanced to his left towards the gate leading out of Peach Plaza and in the direction of the home that even as he stood there in the snow he couldn’t say he was completely resolved to venture towards.

_Am I really going to do this?_

His feet started moving.

_Am I really okay with this?_

He passed by the tree in front of Django’s.

There were similar relationships in Atara he had come across during his time there. At the lightest iteration were the free-wheeling dating-types who were never tied down to a single individual, seen one night with one lover and the next with a different, hopping from person to person without care. The more serious relationships he had seen with more than one partner he had personally paid little attention to at the time, not caring what _they_ did in particular, but feeling very strongly for himself he would not be willing to ‘share,’ as he saw it, the company of whatever individual he might eventually wish to be with.

But now, faced with the opportunity to be with the one other person in town he ever had any interest with at all-

_She might not even want to._

Gust stopped at the gate, looking over his shoulder in the direction of the workshop that lie just down the road.

_But do I?_

He moved for Liz’s home in something of a daze, hands finding his arms and absently trying to rub away the cold.

_Even if I moved in...would she want more?_

He shuddered.

_...will I even be able to give her more?_

Gust hadn’t been with anybody since-

As he trudged down the snowy road, Gust clenched his eyelids together and fought back the thoughts threatening to take shape, images and memories he wanted nothing more than to wipe from his brain completely starting to dance tauntingly at the edges of his mind’s eye until it was almost more than he could take--

\--until his eyes flew open as he nearly ran face-first into Liz’s marble gate, one of his hands shooting out quickly to push it aside and enter the yard, moving towards the door to the house and, after taking a deep, centering breath...

...knocked.

Gust shoved his other hand deep into his pocket as his arms dropped to his sides and he heard Arlo’s voice through the portal coming closer.

“And here he is! Right on schedule.” Arlo gave Gust a welcoming grin and pulled back from the door so the blonde could move beyond the threshold, “Come in! It’s cold. We’ve got a fire going.”

“What have you said to her?” Gust whispered urgently as he walked inside, suddenly feeling his heart pounding in his chest and only taking passing notice of how strange it was to see Arlo in more mundane clothing.

“You were coming over after work for a drink.” He murmured back.

_“What?”_

“Hi, Gust.” 

He swallowed as he looked up, Arlo moving away after closing the door to disappear into the room to the left. 

Liz was looking over her shoulder from where she sat in the middle of the couch where it faced the fireplace much like it had been last Winter when he’d gotten sick.

“Long day?”

“Uh-” He didn’t realize he kept moving closer until he could see the way the firelight danced across sunken features, worn and tired eyes haunted by sleepless nights.

He recognized those eyes. Seen them in his own mirror many moons ago.

And they tugged at his heart.

_You of all people don’t deserve that._

While the frantic beating didn’t seem to slow, the panic in his mind swirled and mixed and was overwhelmed for now by concern, and his expression softened as he forgot everything else for a moment and rounded the closest edge of the couch to sit next to her.

Liz watched him give her a gentle smile as he sat down facing her on the couch, one leg bent up underneath him on the cushions as he made little ceremony of reaching up and pushing some of the limp hair hanging to the side of her face behind one of her ears.

Gust couldn’t tell if she flinched or shyed away from his touch, but he thought he saw something self-conscious in her expression when he did so, when her eyes dropped away from him and she pulled her lips into her mouth to wet them, trying to hide their chapped surfaces.

“I’m sorry.” He murmured between them.

“For what?” She met his gaze again for a moment, mouth twitching briefly into a smile.

One of his hands reached up to rub at his neck, “For not...for not being here.”

Same ghostly smile, a raised eyebrow this time and a spark of encouragement for him in the familiarity of her expression, “Why are you sorry for that? You-”

“Here you are!” Arlo came sweeping back into the room with a couple of mugs in his hand, “Something to warm you up.”

Gust wasn’t certain what Liz had been passed, but _his_ looked like cocoa and he gave Arlo a look as the former Captain sat down on the other side of Liz and leaned his back into the arm of the couch, reaching behind him to the side-table for a tall glass sitting on it of what Gust could only see as clear, bubbling liquid.

“Vodka soda?”

Arlo caught the other glancing at it and grinned, “Without the vodka.”

Gust blinked at him and if Arlo didn’t know any better, he might have sworn the architect all but _smiled_ at him.

“How was your trip to Atara?” Liz asked.

_Of course she knows about that._

“Nothing terribly exciting. Albert can’t stop talking about that creation your father made while he was here last month.”

“It’s a pain in the ass.” Liz replied, Gust noticing how a smile tugged at the edges of Arlo’s lips when she appeared to hold the Robopig Rider in no small amount of contempt. “Just about the only thing useful about it is it can fly. I’d take a sentient mount over that pile of junk any day.”

“Here, here.” Arlo agreed, lifting his glass a little.

“I figured you’d enjoy such a device.” Gust lifted his gaze to the other, “After all, isn’t that the name of your little getaway club?” 

Arlo narrowed his eyes at the architect's dry expression, smirking and refusing to take the bait, “No, I’m afraid they don’t use anything similar in the _Flying Pigs,_ art-boy.”

Liz’s hand flew up to her mouth and her shoulders were shaking as she tried somewhat unsuccessfully not to let her laughter bubble up past her lips and the two on either side of her found their eyes drawn in her direction, the both of them enjoying the sound and thankful to hear her make it.

Gust caught Arlo giving him a toothy smile at their verbal shenanigans producing such satisfying results, and then saw the spark of remembrance as to their real intentions for the evening just before he lowered his gaze to regard his wife.

He coughed a little, clearing his throat.

“Lizzie, I-” He looked down at his hands, fingers curled around the glass of chilled carbonated water in his lap, “You know I told you how I ran up to Dr. Xu today?”

She nodded.

Arlo let out a sigh, “He told me he was really worried about you.”

Gust’s gaze kept darting between the duo, Arlo still not looking at Liz who had cast her own gaze down at the slightly steaming mug held between her hands once the redhead mentioned the doctor’s concern.

“And so is Sam. And Remi. Django. Hell, just about anybody I ran into today wanted to know if you were alright.”

“I’m sorry-”

He held up a hand and she fell silent again, “Just hear me out, okay? Please?”

Another small nod, the woman letting out a little breath.

Arlo took a moment before he spoke up again.

“Your nightmares are back, aren’t they?” He murmured, Gust giving him a sharp look even as Arlo’s bright blue gaze remained fixed on his bride.

Confusion and wonder filling him, when Liz hesitated, Gust found his eyes darting back to her, unable to quantify what exactly could plague her so intensely, and yet knowing such things were not as uncommon as he may wish them to be.

After all, some might attribute his own strides in his chosen field to a fervor they would never know stemmed from sleepless nights spent pursuing his studies until complete exhaustion would overtake him and give him blissful rest free of his own set of nightmares he sought to avoid to the exclusion of all else.

Caught up in his momentary turmoil, Gust almost didn’t hear the quiet, “Yes.”

Arlo’s eyes clenched shut for a moment and he let out a silent breath, wishing it weren’t true.

“I’m sorry, I-”

“Hey,” Liz reached over, expression gentle, and at her touch of his leg, Arlo’s eyes opened to look at her hand, “They’re not your fault.”

“I-”

She shook her head at his second attempt to protest and this time Arlo fell silent as she continued.

“I know you wish you could fix it. Take them away.”

Gust understood that, watching the exchange happening within arm’s reach. 

He felt exceptionally strongly about it at present, in fact.

“We have an idea.” 

Liz turned to regard Gust curiously, almost having forgotten the other was even in the room, and she noticed his chin lift briefly to indicate the man on her other side and include him in the aforementioned idea, though his actual gaze never left her.

For his part, Arlo gave Gust a small smile.

“Arlo thinks you could do with some company.”

She glanced at her husband before returning her attention to Gust.

“And if you’re not opposed to it, I’m inclined to agree that the arrangement would likely be to your benefit.”

Speechless now, Liz could only stare at Gust and blink, eyebrows twitching as she tried to assess what exactly was being suggested.

“You’d kill him for even thinking about leaving the adventurer guild-”

“It’s true.”

“-and I’m not expected back in Atara for at least another month-”

She kept looking back and forth at them as they spoke.

“-so, if it isn’t completely distasteful to you,” here Gust’s lips struggled not to turn upwards, “We thought having someone to come home to might ease your mind a bit.”

“I-” When it seemed like they expected her to say something, Liz found she couldn’t form any words to satisfy them, finally staring at her husband who shrugged.

“It was his idea.” Gust piped up, Arlo’s face breaking into a smile at her and nodding.

“He could move in. Stay here while I’m gone.” He started to lift his glass to his mouth, eyes twinkling, “Maybe take you out on a date or two.”

“_Arlo!_” She managed to sputter out a protest at that, as if he were revealing something she had shared in the privacy of their relationship that Gust didn’t need to know.

“That...would be entirely up to you, Elizabeth.” Gust added, finding himself blushing deeply and unable to meet her eyes when she whipped back around, further shocked at his response. “I-I’m, that is, I don’t want to be an imposition.”

“But let’s be clear: he’s not opposed to it.” Arlo tacked on, “And neither am I, for that matter.”

“_What?”_

“I would just be here at Arlo’s behest.” Gust kept going, wanting to reassure her that nothing would happen if she didn’t wish for it, and then found himself blurting everything out all at once, “I mean I had a Heart Knot in my pocket that day too but really I’m just as happy to be friends with you and if you didn’t want to even consider it, please don’t think anything aside from friendship is necessary, I’d be more than happy to sleep on the couch and honestly I wasn’t even thinking about sleeping anywhere else in the first place but I would be someone here for you to talk to-”

“Woah, pal, take a breath.” Arlo laughed and held up a hand, Gust’s lips snapping shut as he stared down at the couch cushions. “What he’s trying to say, darling, is that we care about you. You do better with someone around the house, we both know that.”

To be perfectly honest, Liz was still reeling from Gust’s sudden outpouring, but when she glanced over at him, he only kept his eyes away from her.

_A Heart Knot?_

_Really?_

“And what about you?” Liz turned back to Arlo who hummed at her, having started to take a drink.

“Mm?” He swallowed, “What about me?”

“Well,” Her gaze darted off to the side as she considered it, “Is there someone you-” Liz’s eyes widened as she realized what she’d been about to say, to imply, and _wasn’t_ she super unsure about all of this? Shouldn’t she be hesitant? Feel some kind of _something_ about what the men on either side of her were suggesting?

Gust couldn’t help but immediately perk up when she stopped and he and Arlo exchanged a glance.

She wasn’t saying no.

Arlo quickly waved a hand dismissively at the rest of what he assumed to be Liz’s thought, attempting to cover up her--Was it uncomfortable?--moment.

“Lizzie, if I’m asking someone else to look after _you_ while I’m gone, I’m _definitely_ not in the market to start up anything with anyone else.” He muttered into his glass as he lifted it to his face again, “I feel guilty enough as it is that I can’t spend time with _you_.” 

When the room was still silent after he took a drink, he went on, “It’s really the farthest thing from my mind, honestly.” He considered Liz thoughtfully and felt it needed to be said: “If something ever comes up on my radar, I wouldn’t go for it without talking to you about it first anyway, Lizzie. I respect us too much for that.”

He watched her gaze soften as she replied softly, “I feel the same way.”

He smiled at her before going on a bit brusquely.

“_However,_ as to the subject of the fine gentleman on the other side of you, I consider us at an understanding and you have my blessing.” Arlo gave Gust a smile when the other looked over at him. “It’s entirely up to the two of you, of course, but-” He shrugged, “I mean, you’re going to be living together--and we _all_ know how the two of you felt about one another at one time--” He was grinning again, enjoying the pink tinge of Liz’s cheeks.

“_Arlo_,” She did succeed in sounding exasperated with him at least, glancing over at Gust to see him resigned to the expression on Arlo’s face and letting out a small sigh laced with irritation as he lifted his mug of cocoa to his lips to finish off the last of it.

It had been made with cayenne, and not sugar.

He stood, “I’m going home before your husband can come up with another bullshit plan to rope me into.”

“It _is_ bullshit, isn’t it.”

Arlo let out a bark of laughter as Gust just stared down at Liz, whose sentiment mirrored exactly his own from earlier.

“How long will you be in town?” He asked Arlo loftily as the other made to stand and move towards the door. Gust followed around the edge of the couch and passed him the mug when Arlo held out a hand for it.

“A couple of days.” 

“If you change your mind, Elizabeth, you’re free to tell this blockhead here and I’m sure he’ll pass it along.”

“Al-right _you_.” Arlo gave Gust a look, trying to fight back another grin, as Gust opened the door and let himself out, leaving Arlo staring at the closed portal with one hand on his hip and shaking his head.

“Red...is this really okay?” Liz wanted to know after Arlo took the mug into the kitchen and came back to sit beside her.

He opened up his arms to her as he slid down a bit and she scooted over as he propped his head up on the arm of the couch to crawl on top of him as he stretched his legs down the length of the furniture.

“If it wasn’t okay, I wouldn’t have brought it up to you, darling. Believe me.” He nuzzled his nose into her hair where she had tucked her face up against his jaw, arms wrapping around her.

Her sigh sent her breath across the skin of his neck and he smiled as his eyes closed and she planted a kiss there.

“...Arlo...”

He felt her shift against him and bring her hand up the other side of his face to draw the tips of her fingers over his cheek before kissing him again. His hands began slowly smoothing themselves over her and he let out a contented breath, pressing his lips to her head.

“There is nothing in the entire world I’d rather do than you right now,” He murmured against her as she drew his lips together just below his ear. He squeezed his arms around her, “But we have time. And I think you’d enjoy it more if you got a little sleep first, mm?”

She grumbled a protest as she took his earlobe between her teeth and nibbled at it and Arlo’s lips hummed together in response before he managed to part them and added:

“You know...we could decide whoever wakes up first...gets to choose how they wake up the other.”

Liz paused and felt her lips begin twitching as she opened her eyes and looked at him.

“...that’s not fair.”

“I think it sounds perfectly reasonable, don’t you?” He teased, rubbing his hand up and down her back a couple of times.

Another grumble, but she cuddled up to him until her forehead met with his neck and he felt her almost immediately begin to relax into him.

“...I love you, Lizzie.”

“...’love you, Red.”


	27. Gust: The First Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Gust stays the first night...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hadn't even realized I missed the one-year anniversary of the game (January 15th)! It seems like MTAP has been around a lot longer than that, but I guess that was the official release date. In either case, happy late one-year anniversary to a fun game with a surprising amount of depth and charm!~

Gust might have been startled by the door opening behind him if he hadn’t spent the last three hours extremely aware the couch he sat in was not in fact the couch in his father’s home.

He still hadn’t decided whether or not he should say anything when she first entered. Should it be like a ‘hi’ or a ‘hello’ or did it matter if he said anything at all-

Those thoughts were still moving across his mind as he heard her shuck, presumably, a coat and boots near the entryway of the house and begin padding on quiet feet across the room.

Liz couldn’t help but smile at the back of Gust’s head as she looked up when she first came in, feeling grateful to her husband for caring enough to seek out some sort of solution for her and having had her otherwise somewhat mixed feelings on the arrangement settled once she was for certain Gust was resolved to be here and Arlo was resolved to have him here.

The adventurer had left that morning, comforted by the fact that she had slept better in the handful of days he spent with her, and he hoped the trend would continue even though duty called him away from her side.

And having Gust’s word the other would hunt her down if she stayed out too late without Arlo even suggesting the notion, on the other side of it getting her word she would try her best to come home at a reasonable hour, “-so I don’t worry about you overworking yourself while I’m gone-”

The both of them knew at the time he had been mostly teasing her.

Moving for the kitchenette in the other room, Liz realized there had been no dread today of coming home, busying herself with some tea.

“Can I make you something?”

Gust nearly jumped out of his seat when Liz suddenly poked her head beyond the arch that separated the main room from the smaller one and asked him.

“I’m making me some tea and it’s no trouble to put on more water for that, or maybe you’d like something else...?”

“I-I’m fine. Thank you.” He added the thanks as if in after-thought, but either Liz did not notice or she thought nothing of it as she nodded and disappeared again.

Gust let out a breath, lowering his book to his lap and staring at the fire in the fireplace, trying to calm himself.

He’d told Ginger first, the very next night on their walk in fact, promising he would visit every single day, and that he had no plans to stop their evening walks and-

His redheaded sister had quickly silenced him with a gentle smile.

“Gust, you do so much. _Too_ much.” She emphasized pointedly, as if she had said so before and he’d never listened. “What you’re doing for Liz is important. I-” She looked away for a moment, then back to him, almost pleading, “I can’t even imagine being afraid to come home, what it must feel like to dread sleep.”

Gust had told Ginger everything, after asking Liz if it was okay for him to share with her the somewhat personal reasons behind his soon-to-be absence from their father’s home.

Somewhere deep down, he had known Ginger would feel this way, had come to terms with the fact that if something _did_ happen to his sister at night, when he was not home, there would be little, if anything, in the moment their father, or even Russo, could not do in Gust’s stead, as much as it had pained him to admit to himself.

“If there’s even a chance of your helping her through that, _please_,” She’d looked at him again, eyes shining, “_Please_ do it.”

He’d never said ‘no’ to that face before.

He certainly wasn’t about to start now.

“Arlo asked me for a favor.” He announced to everyone at dinner the evening after, having told Ginger of his intentions to bring it up. “I’ll be staying with Liz while he’s gone.”

It took everything he had to say it, heart hammering in his chest and leaving him wondering why he so desperately hoped for his father’s approval _now_ for _this_ of all things.

Not unused to his brusqueness, Gale blinked at his son and swallowed his bite of food before asking somewhat tentatively, “And Liz is okay with this?”

Gust had given a sharp nod, not looking up, his attention on the meal on his plate and hoping the subject would be completely dropped.

To his great relief, it had been, though he caught Russo side-eyeing him.

The butler said nothing and Gust thought little else of it.

The couch next to Gust shifted a little as Liz sat next to him with her tea in her hands and a blanket around her shoulders.

She let out what Gust took to be a small sight of contentment and he watched her out of the corner of his eye as she appeared just as comfortable as always with their automatic lapse into silent companionship he’d always appreciated from her.

She never felt the need to fill the air with idle chatter.

Though he was certainly feeling nervous enough for some reason not saying anything to her.

And he couldn’t figure out why.

He returned to his book in the hopes it would pass and eventually it did.

“I’m going to stoke the fire and then head to bed.”

When next Gust looked up, he realized how strained his eyes had become in the lowered light and also how sleepy Liz sounded next to him, closing his book and watching her as she shrugged out of her blanket to move towards the fireplace and deftly place logs and tend to the lowered flame in such a way that it retained life and would burn for several hours more.

She stretched out once she stood up from the task and noticed Gust had his book closed.

“Don’t feel like you have to come now!” She told him, nodding to his book.

“I-” He blinked at her as she started to move away and his gaze dropped to the side.

He hadn’t really come to terms with sleeping in the same bed as her, though apparently it seemed like she expected him to.

Strangely enough, it wasn’t for the reasons he originally considered might be the perpetrators, finding instead that for all Arlo’s, and subsequently Liz’s, reassurances of ‘whatever happens or does not happen is fine either way,’ sleeping next to another man’s _wife_ was really his main issue with it.

And frankly, given everything else so far, he wasn’t even really sure _why._

Maybe because the only other people he’d ever chastely shared a bed with had been family, memories of himself as a child knocking on his parents’ bedroom door early in the morning when he could hear them holding inconsequential conversation and crawling up between them into his mother’s awaiting arms flitting across his mind’s eye.

He certainly never would have actively considered sharing a bed with a _friend,_ not that the opportunity had arisen for him in the past.

He’d never been one in Atara to get so drunk as to let on to others he might not know the direction of home.

Maybe because, if he had been in Arlo’s shoes, Gust wouldn’t have been nearly so devil-may-care about the arrangement, if it had even been something Gust would have considered in the first place.

The next time Liz looked up, she was already half-way under the covers and noticed Gust was standing just inside the archway to this other room looking as if he meant to ask her something.

She sat back up and tilted her head at him in silent curiosity.

He opened his mouth and closed it again and otherwise didn’t look at her. 

Gust meant to ask her for a blanket, for some extra sheets, thinking he’d sleep on the couch, but before he could manage to string the words together, a lightbulb lit up over Liz’s head and without giving it too much other consideration, she smiled and started to scoot over to the other side of the bed.

Arlo usually slept over here. It still smelled a little like him in fact. Liz thought maybe Gust would be more comfortable on _her_ side, though.

Another idea occurred to her and she paused in mid-scoot and looked up at Gust with wide eyes, “Oh! But, I mean, Gust, you know you don’t _have_ sleep over here. Is that what’s bothering you?” She kept scooting, but was about to make over to the edge of the bed, where she intended to rise and rustle through some other bed linens to make Gust a place on the couch.

Just as she would have gotten up, Gust moved towards what had been her side of the bed, “No, stop, it’s fine. I- If you’re okay with it, then I guess I don’t care.”

“Well, I mean, it’d probably be warmer with two people. It’s not supposed to get too cold tonight, otherwise I’d say we should drag the mattress over near the fire.” Liz stated as if it had happened before, pausing in place to watch Gust for a moment before deciding he was going to lay down next to her and, satisfied, tunneling herself back under the comforter with her back to him until she had the blanket up to her nose and rested her head against Arlo’s pillow, missing the redhead when his scent moved across her face, but smiling sleepily when she felt the mattress shifting under Gust’s weight as the other laid back.

_This...isn’t so bad._

Gust wasn’t sure if Liz had fallen asleep immediately or not, but he certainly stared at the ceiling for a long time, conscious of the body next to him and actually finding it comforting to have someone there.

_In fact, it’s...kinda nice. _


	28. Gust: The First Kiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Gust shares his first kiss with Liz...

Winter marched on.

No word from Arlo.

Not that anyone had been expecting there to be any, frankly.

Seems as if he had been right about the nightmares, though. Gust’s company had kept them at bay since Arlo left, and as a bonus, having him around had generally improved Liz’s spirits overall, which the rest of the city had certainly taken note of.

It had only been a few days since Arlo’s departure, but Gust was positive news had by this point made its way around town that, in its mildest form, he was staying in Arlo and Liz’s home.

He endeavoured to ignore the lascivious looks individuals like Sonia and Antoine gave him when he walked in the mornings from Liz’s workshop into Peach’s Plaza to work nowadays, and for once he was extremely surprised to find that Albert of all people _wasn’t_ the one trying to pry.

And extremely grateful to his work partner and friend for leaving the subject alone.

While coming home to an empty building had never been something Gust himself faced--the mayor’s household always bustling with _someone,_ whether Ginger or Russo or even Gale himself--he could just imagine doing so being much harder once one got used to having other bodies around. Even in Atara, Gust eventually came to share space with Albert, and while the pair of them might have at times only been two ships passing in the night, their apartment still managed to feel like home, signs of other life moving through it quite comforting even for someone with more introspective tendencies like Gust, whether or not actual contact was made between him and Albert for days at a time.

So on some level, Gust could see how, while Liz had up to a month or two ago lived on her own in Portia, after becoming accustomed to another presence she cared for, being suddenly left alone might negatively affect her. Especially what with the haunting memories of past encounters just waiting for a moment of weakness to bear down. In such a short time himself, he honestly looked forward to climbing into bed next to her and was surprised to find himself wondering why sleeping alone seemed so normalized when it felt so genuinely _good_ to have someone else he trusted nearby, romantically or not.

As had become his customary habit upon returning to the house after dropping by to visit with his sister after work on evenings where they did not take walks to the river together, Gust had pulled the couch in the main room in front of the now flickering, dancing light of the cheery fire he’d made in the fireplace and used it to read, keeping it going as evening wore on into night, Liz arrived home and then went to bed, and the chill of Winter threatened to settle into the air.

One of the architectural books that had been resting in one of Liz’s many shelves was open over his lap where he’d crossed one leg to lay his ankle over his other knee. He had it tilted just a little so the firelight would reach it, otherwise sitting in the darkness of the season.

The silence only punctured the crackling of the fire was suddenly broken by the sound of rustling off to his left and soft footfalls moving his direction, behind the couch, rounding the other side of it.

“It’s very cold in there.” Liz announced, grabbing the blankets resting over the arm of the furniture to wrap it hurriedly around her shoulders as she shivered, “Can I sit next to you?”

Gust made a noise of affirmation and nodded, though upon reflection he found the question strange.

“It’s your couch.” He raised an eyebrow down at his book as she climbed up right next to him and pulled her knees up to her chin.

“I didn’t want to bother you if you’d rather be alone.” She replied, trying to wrap the blanket around her legs and shoulders and all and resting her chin on the tops of her knees, shivering again.

Gust glanced over at her, then returned to his book.

He spoke up again after a beat of silence, “...you’re never a bother.”

“Coulda fooled me.”

He didn’t turn towards her, but he did send his gaze her direction out of his peripheries. 

She was smiling a little.

“When have I ever called you a bother?” He countered, reaching up to turn a page of his book.

Liz didn’t answer for a moment, then shrugged.

“Never, I suppose.”

“If you were a bother, I would tell you.”

He said it so frankly, but she knew it was true anyway.

She looked at him, “Promise?”

“Promise.” There was no hesitation in his response.

Gust felt Liz staring at him, but he just waited patiently for whatever would come next.

Suddenly, she had snuggled herself up against him with a little sigh of contentment and this time he blinked down at his book in surprise, looking over to see her nuzzling her face against his arm before resting her cheek there, eyes twinkling up at him as if waiting for him to say she was bothering him.

He scoffed, “Tch,” and returned to his book, but not before Liz caught a smile tugging at either corner of his mouth.

It took several attempts at reading the same line and not comprehending it for Gust to realize he was too busy enjoying the feeling of Liz leaning against him, paying attention to how her breath eventually evened out as he felt her slump more heavily as she relaxed.

Something about feeling her grow more comfortable next to him, comfortable enough to fall asleep against him, made him feel...special.

“...Thanks for staying with me...”

He barely caught her mumble, her mouth partially covered and moving against his arm.

“...it’s nice...having someone to come home to...” Liz reached up and scratched her nose and then fell still, her hand coming to rest curled up near her face on his arm.

Gust couldn’t exactly track the time, but the next time he looked up it was because the light in the room had diminished to the point of obvious eyestrain trying to focus on his book and he blinked a couple of times to clear his vision.

At some point his arm had circled Liz and she had her face resting at the place where his chest met his shoulder. He put his book down next to him and watched her sleeping for a breath or two, unaware that he smiled down at her.

He needed to stoke the fire though, and she needed to be in an actual bed where she might rest well.

Gust scooped her up off the couch into his arms, blanket and all, and quietly padded his way through the room until he reached her bed, leaning over to gently set her down.

When he tried to pull away, he found part of his white button-up shirt had gotten balled up into one of her fists and when he let her go to reach up and try to unfold her hand, she stirred and looked up at him and he sighed at her with equal parts fondness and regret at having her wake up on him.

“...please come back?”

“If you want me to.”

“...only if it’s not a bother.”

He let out another breath and she released him, appearing to fall back asleep.

Gust paused where he was, leaning over her, and felt his lips soften into a smile as his eyes scanned over her features which were easing back into the peacefulness of the unconscious.

_Sleeping next to you is not a bother. _

_...I don’t even know if I could rightly keep myself from it at this point._

Quietly standing up from the bedside, Gust returned to the dying fire in the other room and just as soon as he had it going, returned to Liz, crawling up next to her as he had for the past several nights, but laying on his side facing her this time and thinking about the circumstances that led to him being here in her bed. 

Liz surprised him by turning to face him and scooting closer when he thought she had fallen deep into sleep before he even left to stoke the fire.

This time frowning a little as if he wasn’t sure what to do, Gust surprised himself at how glad he was to have her wrap her arms around his neck and make the decision for him, shifting the arm laying down his side to rest over her torso like he had just been looking for the excuse to do so, and happily taking the opportunity she provided.

What he wasn’t expecting _then_ was for her to kiss him.

He froze at the feeling of her soft lips more than simply brushing against his, too shocked to think much beyond perhaps assuming she mistook him for Arlo in the midst of her half-dreaming state.

Gust’s heart began beating wildly in his chest and he mentally berated himself for starting to slowly kiss her back, but her kisses were so tender-sweet somehow that even the thought of stealing them from Arlo to whom they likely belonged fluttered away from his mind as he felt her fingers shifting against the skin at the back of his neck and found himself wanting nothing more than to be able to touch her, to hold her, craving the new closeness between them she had initiated and feeling at the same time just pulling her against him like he did wasn’t somehow enough.

When he felt the tip of her tongue trace across his lips, Gust’s eyes popped open as he inadvertently took a sharp intake of breath at the sensation and Liz pulled back just far enough to still feel the air from her parted mouth moving over his face.

“...Gust...I-”

He covered her lips with his this time, closing his eyes again and stopping whatever it was she might have meant to say, certain now she had meant to kiss _him_ this whole time, asleep or not. As his tongue dove past her lips to find hers, he felt her moan against his mouth and try to press herself closer, one hand moving to the back of his head, now in the midst of his hair even as the other one slipped over his neck and just underneath the edge of his collar until their tongues met again and he lost track of it.

Their kisses weren’t so much fevered as they were deepening and poignant and Gust forgot all else existed, where he was, even _who_ he was. 

That is until he felt her hand move over the growing throbbing sensation in his pants.

When Gust broke completely away from her with wide green eyes to meet her own in a way that spoke of his uncertainty, Liz immediately pulled her hand away from him and met his look, now fully awake herself.

“Gust, I-I’m so sorry, I-”

He shook his head, regretting he’d been so immediately shaken as to make her so undeniably uncomfortable. 

It wasn’t _her,_ not specifically, it was just...

“It’s...” He hesitated and when he thought she might pull away from him, might stop touching him completely, his silent protest and reassurance he didn’t want her to go was to take his arm out from under his head and slip it underneath her waist to embrace her fully, and he relaxed a little when her hands went back around his neck and she stopped moving like she would leave.

“...it’s just...it’s...been a long time...” 

Liz blinked up at the architect and watched as he couldn’t quite meet her gaze, a blush starting to settle across the freckles beneath his regret-full eyes partially hidden behind a few of the shorter strands of the hair around his face falling in the way.

She smiled kindly and reached up to move some of those pieces to the sides, murmuring softly, “A long time, huh?”

If she was being honest, she guessed it made sense. He’d never been interested in any of the women in Portia as far as she could tell, though if pressed she might have guessed he would have found _some_ warm-body type of arrangement with _someone._ Maybe Phyllis.

_I guess not._

He nodded, but still didn’t look at her, “Since...since I was studying full time in Atara.”

That made a little sense anyway. She’d come to discover most folk's impression of him around here was he felt he was much better than everyone else, but she for one could see him flashing that gorgeous smile he had and winning over just about anybody if he felt like it once he left their collective judgemental gaze.

While she didn’t find any one Portian’s perception of him entirely wrong--or_ him_ entirely wrong on the other side of it if she were being honest--his blunt mannerisms and penchant for being standoffish she felt was just as likely a symptom of his lack of social interaction due to absent-mindedness and an already quiet demeanor as it was thinking he was actually better than all of them, or maybe even not wanting to waste time with people or things he didn’t care about. All of it wrapped up into one, in fact.

“B-But I...” He frowned, still blushing and struggling with whatever it was that made him care so much in this moment as to feel embarrassment.

“What is it, Gust?” She encouraged patiently after waiting for him to continue, lips turning up kindly at the corners, “You’ll have to speak up some time. I can’t read minds, you know.”

His face scrunched up in consternation as he mumbled, “I like kissing you.”

Liz brightened at that, “I like it when you kiss me! In fact, I like it so much you can feel free to kiss me whenever you want. Open invitation.” She gave him a teasing grin.

Gust finally looked at her once she made the assertion and smirked at her wily features. He raised an eyebrow, “Is that so?”

She nodded cheerily.

“So, I could kiss you right now?” He could almost _see_ her heart flutter as he leaned back towards her and pressed his lips to her cheek, and he had to admit he enjoyed it just as much as he enjoyed how she softened into his embrace again.

“Uh huh.” She murmured, eyes closing as he pulled away just far enough so they weren’t touching any longer.

Gust watched her bite at her lower lip as he let out the smallest breath against her skin, and whispered, “What about now?”

Her lips parted as his query of air sent a wonderful shiver down her arm. 

She gave a little nod.

He kissed farther up her cheek, paused again.

“...I-” He blinked at himself. _I love you._

Liz opened her eyes and nudged her nose against his cheek.

He felt her breath move over his ear as she spoke reassuringly to him.

“Hey...I never want you to do anything you aren’t comfortable with, okay?” She pressed her lips to his cheek and this time_ he_ closed his eyes to savor it. “Whether it’s kissing me or letting me touch you or whatever. Any of it.”

Gust found himself smiling a little as he hugged her tightly to him, feeling her respond in kind as he buried his face against her and took a deep breath of her flowery scent.

His hesitation a moment ago hadn’t been at _all_ from an uncertainty about kissing her more, and he proved it to himself at the least by turning and meeting her cheek with his lips in a more solid declaration of affection, feeling reassured by the fact that the thought, the follow-through, none of it had been accompanied by any negative response inside his own head.

He felt Liz chuckle pleasantly and squeeze him once before cuddling up to him and tucking her head rather satisfactorily beneath his chin as he placed his head onto the pillow once more as they settled back down together.

Gust huffed a little, feeling guilty.

“...I’m sorry.” He murmured, the apology out of his mouth before he could reconsider.

“Sorry?” She sounded incredulous, “For what?”

“For...” Even though she wasn’t looking at him, his gaze darted to the side and he felt his face warming again, unsure if he could actually bring himself to say the words. “...you know.”

When she pulled back away from him this time, he was disappointed, even though she didn’t go very far, and yet he knew it was his own fault for saying something in the first place.

Gust glanced at her briefly, but found he couldn’t meet her searching gaze directly.

Liz wanted to berate him for feeling like he had to apologize and she pursed her lips, unsure if it would do any good in this moment to handle it that way.

She tried to approach it differently than her initial instincts.

“Look here, art-boy.” Her tone startled him a little and he actually met her eyes in surprise, “If you can’t manage yet to whole-heartedly embrace your boundaries without remorse for _your_ own sake, then do it for _mine._ Do you know how awful it would make me feel if something happened between us you were the slightest bit uncomfortable with?”

Too startled to actually answer her, thankfully it seemed like she didn’t expect him to anyway, having caught his emerald stare up in her own and refusing to release him from it even though he quite willingly stayed.

“The answer is ‘pretty dang awful,’ alright? And if I have to, I’ll start straight-up _asking_ you before I do anything, you hear me? Your permission is important to me. It matters, regardless of what anyone else has ever managed to say or do to convince you to the contrary. And if you’re the slightest bit unsure you can’t regulate it on your own, I’ll have you know I have the patience to happily spend the rest of our days together inquiring after every little thing I ever want to do, got it?”

Overwhelmed by her brusqueness, the sincerity gleaming in her eyes, Gust blinked and swallowed, trying to prevent the cascade of emotions waterfalling over his heart from leaking out of his eyes and knowing if he tried to speak in that moment he would fail.

So he just nodded.

Liz continued looking into his eyes, “Now, is this okay?” She shifted her arms and hands around a little bit to indicate what she meant.

As if again afraid she might pull away, he held her a little more tightly, “Yes, please...please, don’t stop.”

Her expression finally softened, “...can I kiss you?”

Another nod and he blinked several times as she moved towards him, the question, being _asked_ making the tightness of his heart overflow and begin to stream down either side of his face, and when he felt her almost immediately start to leave him as if the single peck was all she had inquired after, his hand came up gently behind her head to request she stay if she were willing as he sought to deepen the moment between them, to which he felt her readily oblige until they parted breathlessly and looked at one another again.

“You- I-” Gust blinked back more tears and embraced her tightly, hiding his face against her neck and afraid the words would cause him to completely break down.

_I love you._

As the side of her neck moistened with tears she only acknowledged by holding him more fervently against her, Liz wondered what had happened to the seemingly detached architect to make him so fragile, like an icicle of spun glass, beautiful and insinuating a coldness at first glance, but with so many facets as to reflect a complexity one could only guess at from a distance.

And not nearly so cold and unfeeling once drawing closer as the form might initially suggest.

“Gust...” She murmured, knowing neither one of them were ready to let go yet, “...if you ever need to tell me anything, anything at all...I’m always here, and... You don’t ever have to feel like you need to face anything alone if you don’t want to, okay?”

He didn’t answer, couldn’t answer at first, not without releasing the sob he felt tightening with a strange foreignness across his chest.

Taking a breath that was shakier than he wanted it to be, he managed to whisper a response.

“...okay.”


	29. Gust: Triangle Love (Rated: E)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Liz expresses a love for triangles...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is rated E for Explicit Sexual Content.

“Gust, I have to say, your work lately has been super impressive.” Albert kept scanning over the pages in his hands, his own plate of food shoved aside long ago, mostly empty and completely forgotten to his left as he poured over the drawings from the portfolio Gust handed him earlier.

The green-eyed architect only glanced mildly in Albert’s direction as he took another bite of one of Django’s “famous” dishes.

It seemed like Albert was always saying something like this.

“I know it probably seems like I’m always saying something like this, but believe me, mate, this stuff you’ve been handing me lately is really special. Just look at this line work here! This is practically a piece of _art_, this building design.”

Gust raised an eyebrow at his partner and Albert caught the look and quickly backtracked.

“N-Not that they haven’t been artwork up to this point!” He said hurriedly, lowering the papers back to the table, “You know I don’t mean _that_. But, Gust...this is different.” Albert steadied his gaze on the other, “I’ve known you for a long time and you’ve never done things like _this_.” He swept a hand across the designs spread out in front of him and seemed a trifle at a loss for words and shook his head instead. “This has...I dunno how to say it...heart? There’s a life to it, it-it’s breathtaking.”

Gust was busy regarding upside-down the items on the table Albert was referencing and almost missed the cheeky grin the other was throwing his direction.

“I never would have known it unless I was witness to it myself, but looks to me like you’ve got a soul after all.”

Gust let out a scoff that Albert knew was actually a huff of laughter and his grin widened. 

He knew just as well as the blonde there had been jokes tossed around in Atara about Gust not having a soul, sold it to some devil or another in exchange for his intrinsic gift with his preferred subject. Albert knew equally as well that Master Vera tended to counter such assertions with the trade being a bad one, that Gust’s work always lacked the exact thing rumors claimed he had so willingly parted with for his ‘supposed skill.’

Gust supposed the end result of said rumors was his receiving QQ from his Master, who claimed he was ‘too boring.’

How a pig was supposed to change that, Gust hadn’t the faintest. He still assumed it was all some huge joke she got a kick out of.

“Either that or you found someone else’s and are holding it captive.” He teased again, earning himself a sidelong smile from his friend, even though it was directed down at his plate of food--hidden in the next moment by a bite of it--and not at Albert himself.

Albert sighed and a companionable silence grew between them as he scanned the pages and eventually started gathering them back into the folder.

“Alright, I guess I’ll go ahead and run these down to the dock. Tell Liz I said hey, yeah?” He looked up at Gust to find the other staring at him and he raised an eyebrow. “What? Look, it isn’t any of _my_ business what _you’re_ up to, mate, but _she_ hasn’t dropped by the office the last couple of days, and since she started coming around town again last Saturday, I guess I kinda miss seeing her, alright?” Albert tossed the blonde another grin as he scooted out of the booth and moved for the door, leaving Gust watching his back as he left.

It wasn’t that Albert knowing on some level what was up particularly _bothered_ Gust, it was just the other hadn’t said two words to him one way or the other until this moment.

His friend’s seemingly open attitude on the subject was, quite frankly, refreshing, and he thought about what Arlo had said about being surprised as to what all went on about town that Gust didn’t know of.

Gust didn’t pay attention, so of course he wouldn’t know what the other denizens were up to.

But it certainly seemed like whatever negative reactions of the townsfolk he had conjured up in his mind had been all but falsehoods except on a rare occasion or two which he was well aware he could have easily been misreading.

Gust glanced over at the second folder he had sitting on the table near his elbow and gave it a little smile. 

The morning after their first kisses, Liz mentioned in passing to Gust how she was interested in finally expanding her house further and he eagerly brought home that evening some of the ideas he’d sequestered away for the place, the two of them pouring over them together cuddled up in front of the fire and Liz even going so far as to request certain aspects be this way or that if he could manage.

Gust had spent every free moment not finishing up the designs Albert just took to the docks sketching out the new ideas Liz had into working models, marrying her thoughts with his vision into several drawings now safely tucked into this folder next to him. He looked forward to bringing them home this evening too, as he’d promised her.

~!**!~

“Oh, Gust! This is so beautiful!”

_You certainly are,_ he thought, unable to stop the smile drawing the edges of his lips upward as he watched her scanning the page she held.

The darkness of the season meant Liz returned home early, or at least it was the excuse she gave when she came in the door much sooner than she might have, and she and Gust made little ceremony of curling up together on the couch, in front of the merry fire as tradition, warm drinks within reach and drawings in their hands.

Or rather, Liz’s hands at present.

She shuffled through them all, eyes bright and hardly noticing how Gust had made himself comfortable with her, which included his right leg bent up and resting on the couch behind her so he could face her, his arms wrapped around her torso and all but pulling her into his lap, herself leaning heavily into his chest and his cheek finally coming to rest on top of her head to glance over the sketches with her.

He would occasionally move his left arm from around her front to point out things in the designs here and there, but mostly satisfied himself with listening to her feedback and thoughts as to these second drafts.

When she let out a little huff and seemed to be cycling through the pages as if looking for something, he raised an eyebrow at her she couldn’t see, becoming somewhat amused.

“Yes?”

She let out another tiny breath again, and finally conceded when she couldn’t find it.

“You took out the one with the roof?”

“They all have roofs.”

She let out a scoff he knew to be tinged just as much with her amusement as her mock-irritation with him.

“You know what I mean. The triangle one.”

“You mean the A-frame.”

“Yeah, that’s what I said. The house that’s the big triangle.”

His puff of air stirred the hair near his lips, “The additions you wished me to implement would not suit an A-frame as the house stands now. Besides, that was an early design idea from long ago, and not a particularly good one at that.”

Gust couldn’t see Liz’s pout, but her body seemed to mirror it, sagging a little in his grasp.

“So you took it out?” She shuffled through the drawings again as if it would appear.

“I took it out.”

“...but I love triangles.” Liz finally mumbled, defeated.

Gust sat up and looked down at the side of her face and, in the hopes of maybe clearing her despair, planted his lips against her temple and kissed her, feeling her soften again and give a little hum of appreciation for his affection.

All at once she had the folder sitting on the floor and had turned to face him on the couch, Gust blinking at her a little in surprise as she shuffled around a bit until she had her legs stretching out behind him to either side of his hips as her arms reached up to circle his neck and she leveled a stare he got too caught up in too quickly to rightly decide if he was completely comfortable with this new position or not.

“So tell me, Mr. Architect, is there _anything_ I can do to convince you to put the triangle back?”

She purred it at him and though his arms were still encircling her, his current grip was particularly slack, his inattention on them directly related to how completely she had distracted him from anything else except her pointed expression that seemed to indicate she would in fact do just about anything he asked.

And of all the possibilities he could come up with, he landed on the one he hoped would get him that look he’d so enjoyed seeing on her features just a couple of days ago.

“I don’t particularly think triangles as _you_ perceive them suit your tastes, Elizabeth.” 

Instead of backing down or freezing as Liz half-expected him to do, when Gust raised an eyebrow at her and didn’t actually let her pull his face any closer like she meant to do, she blinked up at him and felt her heart stutter over a beat or two as she watched a low smolder building in his gaze.

After a swallow, she managed to reply, “I disagree. I find triangles are very aesthetically pleasing.”

She suddenly realized after a moment he _had_ started moving at some point, because now she was staring up at him and only one of his hands was actually at her back now, the other planted on the couch beneath her near her head, holding him up over her. She watched as part of his long, soft hair tumbled over his shoulder to hang in the space between them, a bit of it starting to pool next to her face, and with Gust hovering now between her knees, they twitched once like she wanted to touch his hips but couldn’t manage to complete the gesture.

“Is that so?”

He did so enjoy taking her off her guard.

Liz nodded, feeling her heart race and strangely enjoying the fact that she hadn’t the faintest idea what Gust intended next.

_This...is not so bad._ Gust thought to himself as he slowly leaned down over the completely captivated woman beneath him and ducked his head to the side of her face to plant a soft kiss to her cheek.

Gust had been worried ever since Arlo brought this arrangement up to him. Worried about whether or not he could actually bring himself after all these years to--

Right now, it didn’t seem to matter, not when he was in control of the situation, which he found he very much enjoyed, and thought Liz seemed to enjoy as well.

He blinked and pulled back all of a sudden, looking down into her eyes and for her part Liz blinked back at him as he momentarily lifted aside the veil of whatever spell had her at his mercy.

“Is this okay?” He asked steadily, searching her face.

Unfortunately, Liz couldn’t help the spreading grin she felt had to be somewhat stupid, very aware of the fact that a tingle had spread across every inch of her body and left hairs standing on end in its wake. She wondered briefly if Gust knew or could see, if the thinness of her shirt gave her excitement away.

“Yeah.” She told him, matter-of-factly. “Yeah, this is- this is _more_ than okay.”

“Hm.” He intoned thoughtfully, leaning back down after raising an eyebrow at her to give her a look that had her shifting in place beneath him.

He enjoyed tasting her, then. Glancing over at her face every so often as he drew his lips together across portions of her smooth skin, Gust watched as her eyelids would flutter at his attentions like the darkness behind them would heighten the sensations. 

The earlier, amused curl of his lips never quite left them while he took his time over the side of her face. A kiss at her temple. One at her jaw. Another at her neck below her ear that had her shifting in place again. He gave her a second there, gently drawing his teeth across her skin before closing his lips on it and nudging at her with his nose.

He felt more than heard at this proximity her low hum and when she moved her face to meet his cheek with hers, they sat together like that for a moment before Gust kissed it again and then planted one farther down her neck.

He didn’t mind when one of the hands that had been around his neck slid to rest against the side of it. Not even when those same fingers slipped beneath the collar of his white button-up, tie and first couple of buttons taken care of when he’d arrived back at the house and gotten more comfortable without his blazer.

Her hand was warm and he appreciated the feel of it against him, appreciated knowing in an instant if he said something she would remove it.

At the moment it was...nice.

The hand he had planted on the couch next to her head found her hair and buried itself in the midst of it, sending the faintest scent of hibiscus wafting over his nose.

Liz’s first iteration of his name came when he actually nipped at her neck, and the way it tumbled in a low moan past her lips sent its own kind of pleasure abruptly coursing through his veins. His fingers originally against her back found the edge of her blouse and sought the skin of her torso beneath it, palm shifting across her waist to the front of it to find her stomach and flattening out as he kissed twice at her ear before taking the edge of it past his teeth to lightly suck on it.

“Gust-” 

He hadn’t realized she’d been quite so breathless.

“Hum?” He replied, murmuring it over the earlobe he’d taken in his mouth as he continued working his tongue over it.

“Gust, can I-”

He glanced at her briefly and then felt her fingers toying with the next button down on his shirt and his lips twitched once before he returned his attention to her ear, cognizant now of the quicker breaths of the woman beneath him and hints of sounds she might at any moment make.

Liz managed to open her eyes half-mast, staring up at what she could see of Gust still hovering over her and wanting desperately to run her hands over him, over his skin, all too aware of the fact that for whatever reason, he still kept distance between them, neither pressing his chest against hers nor in any more contact with her than initially: the hand just above her waist curling over her hip, his other hand in the midst of her hair on the side of her head he had started giving kisses to.

“Can you, what--” He began, voice still at that same murmur as the breath from his lips blossomed across her partially wet ear and made the hairs at her neck and down her arm stand up again, “--Elizabeth?”

“Can I- Please- Just- One button?” Her eyes fluttered closed again as he kissed harder at her neck and it took every ounce of willpower she had not to start undoing them anyway, to not pull him down on top of her so she could feel more of him against her.

Gust’s eyes flickered towards the fingers she had at his shirt and knew one wouldn’t be enough for what she--what _he_ wanted her to do.

“How about...” He pulled away just far enough from her neck to no longer be touching her, “You do two. I...” Gust blinked and realized he wanted to tell her what he wanted, because right now he couldn’t think of anything he wanted more in the immediacy than the feeling of her palm against him. “-I think you can reach better with two. I...would like you to...put your hand on my chest.”

Liz’s eyes came open at his first hesitation and she waded through the heaviness of her own desperations of the moment to watch him pull back far enough now to meet her gaze and found him giving her the smallest smile, those emerald eyes soft in a way she’d never seen before.

With a strange sort of reverence, both Gust and Liz watched as she gently freed two more of the buttons of his shirt and at her glance in his direction for reassurance that same smile flickered wider for a moment as he gave her the slightest nod before she ran her fingers underneath the opening and rested her hand against him.

Gust’s attention shifted back over to Liz’s face when he felt her other hand still at his neck give the barest of nudges downwards in the hopes he might cooperate and he drank in her sweetly smiling features like a man parched as he watched her ask, “Kiss me?”

His smile mirrored her own as he bent back down and obliged, feeling somehow she tasted of starlight and hope as the hand that had been in her hair feathered to her neck where his thumb caressed back and forth just beneath her jaw.

In the next breath, Liz’s tongue dove past Gust’s soft lips and she made a noise as he met her with his own, the flame between them letting off a spark they both allowed to ignite the edges of their senses.

Before he could have rightly said he realized what he was doing, Gust had practically torn Liz’s shirt off over her head with her help, breaking from her only long enough to throw it over the back of the couch away from the fireplace and as he returned to her kisses, his hand came immediately back, this time to her chest to squeeze at the remaining soft fabric that separated him from her breast.

Gust felt her moan against him as their lips continued to meet one another and he squeezed again before leaving her face as he pushed aside the cup of her bra and latched onto her nipple already hard from their activities. 

Liz really wanted nothing more than to take off _his_ shirt, but barring that, she arched her back to meet him as he sucked at her skin and held her areola between teeth behind his lips to move his tongue across it.

Reaching underneath herself as his hand not holding the cloth aside found the small of her back to rest against her, Liz continued keening at Gust and his attentions as she made quick work of unlatching the bra and slipping it from her one shoulder, suddenly too distracted with _feeling_ and not wanting Gust to stop even long enough for her to get it the rest of the way off.

When he felt the fabric start to slide away on its own, Gust reached between them with his free hand without stopping, guiding the needle off of the thread of her arm and letting her bra drop behind the back of the couch as well.

He abruptly switched to the other breast then, as his free again hand covered his handiwork on the other to intermittently give the soft mound attentions, squeezing and enjoying both how it felt and how it apparently made Liz feel.

When Gust suddenly began making a trail with his lips down the rest of her ribs, Liz could only stare at first, at a loss for breath and much actual thought until he reached her waistline and started kissing across it, one hand still, gently now, massaging at her chest in a way that continued to stir the low flame in her belly.

At the other hand undoing the button of her pants, Liz sat up on her elbows as if to protest, but found nothing managed to make it out of her mouth when he looked up with piercing green eyes darkened by an emotion she had never seen there before and raised a single of those perfect eyebrows even as he kissed her again, still staring at her.

His look made her blush suddenly as she blinked at him, lips parted but no words forming at first.

“Gust you-” She stammered suddenly when the hand near his face also slowly started to unzip those same pants. “-y-you don’t have to-”

He kept going, eyes never leaving her face, eyebrow lifted.

The second one joined it and he tilted his head back down for another kiss at her hip before raising his gaze back to her.

“What I’m not hearing...is you telling me to stop.” 

Liz felt her stomach dip lower at his tone and just stared back, finding herself simultaneously caught in and completely put off kilter by his gaze.

When he seemed to be waiting for an answer even as his hand gently folded back what he had undone she forced one past her lips.

“W-Well, no...”

This next kiss went lower, in the midst of the underclothing he’d revealed and she twitched as her heart skipped another beat, but when he looked up at her, she was only biting her lip, her fingers pressing so hard into the cushion of the couch beneath her as to make her knuckles white.

The hand still at her chest left it now to slide in an elegant curve across her abdomen to her waist and he could feel her muscles tightening beneath his fingers, admiring their well-earned strength from the hard-working woman who used them even as his gaze flickered briefly towards the long scar she’d gotten from her fight with the Rogue Knight before dismissing it for now.

When he kissed again just below her navel as his fingers curled on either side of her around the waistband of her pants, she stammered his name again and he paused to look back up at her.

“Y-You-” 

He could see now the confliction in her face, her former attempts at placating him out of his decision fighting now with a slyer expression he took to mean she had a proposition for him and instead of waiting to see which emotion might win out, he locked gazes with her again and slowly started to slide the pants away.

When her hips twitched a little, he paused, seeing that she might be able to speak her mind.

She gave him a wolfish grin he found himself blinking at unexpectedly, “If you’re so set on this, the _least_ you could do is take off your shirt first.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah.” Liz gave him a look and he found himself smirking back at her as he shook his head and sat back on his knees to oblige, taking no particular hurry in undressing himself and perfectly aware of the fact that she watched hungrily even as he shrugged the shirt from his shoulders and pulled it from his arms to drop over the back of the couch, leaving him seated on his heels over her in only a white tank top still tucked into his pants behind the black belt at his waist.

Liz’s eyes followed the lean lines of his figure, so unlike Arlo, though the redhead was genuinely the furthest thing from her mind in those moments. 

While in truth the same height as one another, Arlo’s muscle bulk certainly made his form fill out once clothing fell away, his usual fare doing surprisingly well at hiding just how hard the planes of the former captain actually were.

For Gust, the sleekness of his outfit complimented rather than contradicted his frame, smooth lines that were obviously well-maintained by the manner in which they flexed and revealed their presence as he shifted in place to untuck then lift the tanktop up over his head to discard it with its fellow.

“Better?” He stared at her then, very aware of the fact that if he looked too far into it, her gaze would render him self-conscious and endeavouring instead to try and do the same to her so the pink tinge to his cheeks would go no further.

“You’re very handsome, Gust.”

He fought against his own smile as her softening expression and subsequent smile made any of his unease slip away, especially as she lowered herself back down to reach her arms out to him.

Gust followed after her gesture quite satisfactorily and slipped his lithe arms underneath her back as he actually lay down on top of her and found her arms encircling him as well.

Pressed up against her, he better understood her request and earlier desire for the skin beneath his buttons even as she started to kiss him again.

“I’m not...crushing you?” He asked between affections when he realized he had more of his weight out of his control than he meant to.

“Hm-mm,” She hummed negatively against his next kiss, “Not in the way you mean.”

He blinked at that and she snuck a kiss at his jaw before pulling back and smiling at him when he looked down at her questioningly, the bits of hair usually braided back to stay out of his face somewhat unruly now and further softening his overall look in a pleasant sort of unkempt manner Liz felt special getting to see.

Liz shifted just a little, but squeezed her arms around him once as she went to explain.

“You _are_ crushing me, but it’s nice. I like feeling your weight, your...heaviness on top of me like this. You’re not _crushing_ me, as in hurting me or-” She took an unrestricted breath beneath him, a deep one, “-making it too hard to breath.” She let the rest of the air out from her nose and shifted against him again, this time enjoying the sensation of her chest pressed up against his own as he bent back over her and kissed her temple and then cheek, planting sweet lips all along the side of her face so as to make her sigh at their pleasantness. “I’ll tell you if it’s too much.”

She felt him nod as he continued kissing her. 

“I didn’t understand before,” He kept covering her features intermittently with kisses as he went on, “Why you kept trying to pull me down farther.”

Liz blushed, “Did I? I was trying not to. I’m so sorry.”

“Mm, it’s fine. I wasn’t...all that sure...what you were doing...or why...”

She felt as though she were melting further into the couch under his affections and when Gust moved back over her face to look down at her, he took in her warm, happy smile briefly before leaning towards her to meet those soft lips again.

“Do you understand now?” She asked impishly when they parted, reaching up to tuck part of his long blonde hair behind one of his ears.

“I like this.” He told her in his usual no-nonsense sort of manner.

He thought her smile was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen, one that sent rays of sunbeams across her features he would have sworn he could feel caressing his cheeks, a smile aimed at _him_ like he’d never seen before, an expression to cherish, certainly, and one he basked in even as she spoke.

“I’m glad.”

“Now, I have a question for _you_, Elizabeth.”

The name _always_ sent delightful tingles down her spine and this time was no different, the man above her leaning down as if to tease his nose against hers but not completing the gesture and leaving her anticipating the moment all the more.

“Y-Yeah?” She managed to stammer when his slightly more steely gaze appeared to be waiting for _something_.

“Will you let me finish what I started?” He raised an eyebrow at her.

_What you-?_

“As I understand the terms, I’ve done as you asked--” This time _he_ shifted against her, Liz still blushing beneath him and acutely aware of her breasts squished so wonderfully between them as he did so. “But if your earlier hesitations are indicative of genuine discomfort with the idea, know that I am just as content to remain _here_ and would always honor your wishes.” His gentle smile left her breathless for completely different reasons than his naked skin against her own did as he added, “Just as I am certain you would honor mine, my dear.”

Liz did not think she’d ever hear him call her that before, and the pet name set her heart aflutter all over again, but she honestly felt uncertain as to what his expectations were, what he meant to ‘finish.’ 

And given her misunderstanding of it earlier in the week and their subsequent conversation, she wanted to make sure she _did_ understand.

“I...am not certain I know what you’re asking of me.” She said carefully, “What exactly do you mean?”

“Well, I meant to _pleasure_ you, darling, but you seemed so taken aback by the idea at the time I wanted to make sure I asked you first.” He tilted his head a little when her eyes widened at his suddenly explicit offer. “I-” His gaze darted off to the side. Liz watched his cheekbones turn pinkish. “I’m not sure...if I can...do so..._properly_...yet, but I-”

He focused back in on her face when her lips were suddenly against his own, her arms hugging him tighter for a moment and when she returned her head back down to the couch she left him blinking down at her.

“What was that for?”

She searched his emerald eyes for a moment before she answered.

“Gust, you don’t _have_ to do anything for me, or _to_ me, or _**with**_ me, you know that, right? I don’t...I don’t want you doing anything you don’t want to do.”

“I know that.” He reassured her, “Really, I do,” He’d found such solace in that, right at the start, and her obvious willingness to let him be in control of what they were doing right now only continued to solidify his comfortableness at being with her. “And...” _And I love you._ “And honestly that’s part of why I...why I _want_ to.”

This close to his face, she caught sight of the earlier smolder starting to build behind his eyes and she found her thoughts swirling around how suave and debonair he’d been with her almost since the very first moment when she teased him about doing anything for a triangle.

So different this Gust than the one she’d caught a glimpse of in her bed days ago, the one who had seemed so delicate, a candy sculpture with fine edges that would break away under the slightest pressure.

One that she got the feeling she could so easily snap in half completely by accident. Without ever meaning to.

“Gust, I-” She swallowed, trying to find the words before he left her speechless again as he apparently could do on a mere whim. “I just want you to know...that...I want to do so many things to you, and I...I apparently can’t help it-” She had no idea she had been _actually_ trying to get him to lay on top of her earlier.

It was getting harder to keep going as he continued staring at her in a manner that wasn’t allowing her any room to feel guilty about any of her actions thus far.

“So I- I just-” **_Damn_**_ you’re so hot._

“To be clear, you seem to have no _actual_ problem with me being...somewhat in control of the situation.”

She shook her head, “N-Not at all. Don’t mind at all. It- It helps, right? If you can do what you’re comfortable with?”

He nodded slowly, “Seems so.” He had, after all, discovered how much he enjoyed how responsive she was to him and it certainly appeared to keep his own reservations and any hiccups he thought he might have had trying anything at all completely off the radar.

“I- Gust, I’m just worried I might mess up.” Her brows suddenly lifted and came together in such a worried expression that he almost immediately leaned forward and pressed his lips to the furrow in the hopes of easing it.

He thought of how he’d frozen up a couple of days ago when she’d touched him. The action had certainly taken him completely by surprise at the time, as had all of the little alarm bells that had started ringing in his own head without his direct say-so.

His relief though, when she had immediately backed off, when he hadn’t so much as said a word to her and she somehow picked up on his immediate discomfort-

Gust landed on _that_ and decided to put words to it.

“Well...I wouldn’t call it messing up, first of all. I...am simply not ready for...” He let out a small breath, “...other sorts of intimacy with you, as I imagine you’re aware. And that’s no fault of your own.” _It’s mine._ “I- You- Elizabeth, you knew _immediately_ when you’d crossed a line-”

“But what if I don’t!”

“I think you’ll know.” He countered. “If you knew _then,_ at a moment when _I_ wasn’t even sure what was going on at first-” He continued over her when it seemed she might protest again, his mouth starting to twitch at the edges into a small smile, “I _trust_ you. That you'd never mean to do anything I didn't want and that you'd stop if I asked, mm? And besides,” He circled back around to his original subject matter and lowered his face until he could feel his breath washing over her lips, “As I recall, you’ve agreed to let me do what I want right now.”

_That_ snapped her mouth shut.

“Would you like me to tell you...what I want to do to you right now?” He murmured again, pressing his lips to the edge of hers briefly before pulling away and doing it again farther up her cheek towards her ear.

Even if she _did_ have a working brain cell left, Liz wasn’t sure she could have worked up an answer for him, feeling his arms which had been for a while now embracing her shift around as his weight lessened on top of her and she felt him starting to rise up a little away from her, his kisses continuing in a path up to her ear where after pressing a kiss just in front of it, in that same low voice, he told her:

“I want to _taste_ you.” 

Liz already had her eyes closed, her arms around him slack, and she all but shivered with pleasure at his request as he began nibbling on the outside of her ear, sending goosebumps all across her shoulder and down that same arm.

Her heart began to pick up in tempo when she felt him drag the tip of his tongue slowly up along the edge of her ear and it wasn’t hard to decipher what exactly he meant for the action to emulate.

Hands shifting against him to rest against his sides, Liz pulled her lips into her mouth and swallowed as she struggled to just lay there beneath him.

“Problem?”

“...I suggest...getting out of arm’s reach, art-boy.” Her fingertips pressed into him with some urgency, though she was also fighting back a smile that he caught as he pulled back far enough to see her otherwise pained expression.

She opened her eyes to blink over at him when she felt his gaze fall on her face, “If you’re going to do stuff like _that._”

Gust chuckled and left the side of her face, “Fair enough,” though he only went so far as to make it to her lips, giving them a peck laced with undeniable sweetness that she found to be exceedingly deceptive immediately following as when he pulled back he only did to her lips what he’d done with her ear.

Liz knew she said his name then, from already parted lips felt it slip past in a groan as her hands at his sides shifted once again.

It surprised her, then, to have Gust make a noise of his own back at her and suddenly begin searching for her tongue with his in a manner that momentarily swept her away.

Her hands came up to the sides of his neck so they would not slide further down his body as she eagerly met his passion with her own and couldn’t stifle her second groan, wanting nothing more in that exact moment than to feel him moving inside of her.

Gust gave one of her breasts a squeeze and then snaked that hand down her front until he met with clothing again, not hesitating this time to turn and slip his hand beneath all of it around to her backside where he started kneading at the lovely roundness he found there.

This did nothing to help stay Liz’s sudden desire as it went coursing through her veins faster and Gust noticed the breath of frustration that went suddenly puffing out from her nose as her hips shifted desperately beneath him.

It wasn’t exactly what Gust intended in the immediacy, but with her all but writhing in place, he propped himself up more completely on his arm as he continued kissing her, moving one of his legs to the outside of hers and finally lifting himself more completely from her, though he found himself wanting, needing maybe, to feel her skin against his own and endeavored to keep those parts of them together as best he could.

Meanwhile, the hand at her rear had quickly smoothed over the top of her thigh in the midst of his shifting about and as his fingers found the wetter warmth he’d been seeking, he felt himself throb against the still-belted trousers he wore while she panted his name to his mouth.

She was certainly more than ready for him, he found, as he dipped his fingers further past the folds of her sex that he hadn’t even gotten to see yet, and he completely surprised himself when the image of making love to her suddenly tantalized his thoughts and further aggravated his blood at the prospect of giving into the more carnal desire and he _didn’t_ have any twinge of uncertainty.

Liz’s hands only left Gust’s face when she absolutely couldn’t stand it any longer and she had to reach down and take off her infernal _jeans_ which were _way_, dammit, and if Gust _wasn’t_ capable of fucking her “properly” as he put it, then she sure as hell was going to take advantage of whatever he _was_ willing to do, which at this moment seemed to be stroking in and out of her in a way that was _nearly_ driving her mad, but that she knew would be even _better_ if he was allowed freedom enough to move those amazing fingers like she wanted so desperately for him to be able to do.

The jeans were taken care of in short order and Liz let out a moan when he leaned back over her after she settled and ran his tongue down her neck as he also got a good thrust of his paired fingers inside of her at the same time, working them back and forth a couple of times before _he_ grew frustrated with the last of her clothing and left the apex of her thighs just long enough to strip it away with her willing movements assisting. 

Gust genuinely pursued her finish at that point, himself imagining what these warm, snug depths might feel like wrapped around his cock even as he mimed the thrusting action he would be taking with his fingers, seeking to stimulate the bundle of nerves he knew would set her insides quivering in short order what with how her cries had begun to rise in length and pitch.

As he felt her tighten further around his fingers and finally climax around them, Gust blinked and realized he’d been so wrapped up in his own thoughts of what _could_ have been happening that he completely missed the opportunity to watch _her_ in the midst of it all, only at the last catching sight of the echoes in her face of her pleasure as she lay still breathing heavily beneath him.

His gaze swept over her body, then--as he slowly removed his fingers from inside of her and watched the hitch of her lungs as he did so--seeing all of its lovely curves for the first time and having the chance to appreciate their beauty so willingly on display for him.

“That was not a _taste_, sir.” Liz’s expression glittered teasingly up at him.

Without missing a beat, Gust’s eyes met her own, her own slightly cheeky, very disheveled, heart-achingly beautiful face, as he raised a brow at her, lifted his fingers in front of his lips, and ran his tongue from their base to their tip.

“A taste? Yes.” He shrugged and lowered his hand to rest lightly on her stomach, “You seemed to wish for dessert first, but I’ll have my main course soon enough.” He leaned down to press a kiss her temple.

“You-” Liz’s eyes narrowed at him and he regarded her with a steady, infuriating sort of look she knew very well. She grinned suddenly, even if she still seemed full of mischievous questioning, “Who _are_ you?”

“Pardon?”

“Who is this Gust and where have you been hiding him all this time?”

Liz blinked up at him as his former haughtiness fell away she found herself breathless all over again, felt like she was seeing him for the very first time.

He smiled that gorgeous smile for her she’d always known he’d had, but had seemed so hidden behind clouds of...of something. Melancholy. Disdain. Awkwardness. But in this moment they’d all been lifted away and she just stared.

“I suppose he was waiting for you to find him, Elizabeth.”

She couldn’t think of anything to say, but he didn’t seem to think she needed to say anything.

“I’m glad you did.”


	30. Gust: Cocoa and Kisses and Hang-ups (Rated: E)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Builder and Gust find the line...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is rated E for Explicit Sexual Content.
> 
> Aaaaand with this chapter Gust finally catches up to Arlo's chapter count and actually surpasses the Captain on the word count, hah. Yes, I've been keeping track. I wanted to try and keep them as even as possible, honestly, since this is a story involving both of them. Gust and Liz, uh, got a little wordy here though (and in the last chapter too, frankly) and every time I tried to wrap up the scene they were like BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE xD 
> 
> Oh well. I'm not exactly complaining. It's a nice problem to have.
> 
> I hope you enjoy~<3

“I...I don’t know, it’s... I _like_ who I am with her, mother. Is that strange?”

Gust knew the gravestone couldn’t answer him back. It never did, never would. 

But here in the stillness of the Winter day, a fresh power of snow covering the tracks he’d made up the small hill the day before, sometimes Gust felt like he could hear her, her soft voice, so like Ginger’s, and her calm spirit weathering even the darkest of storms with its quiet steadfastness.

“She makes me feel...confident. About who I am. Even the-” He blinked, “Even the difficult stuff. When I say something wrong.” His mother had never told him off when he’d been so blunt, a trait he’d always had that had certainly never won him any friends when she was alive. But neither had Liz, for that matter, ever been offended or upset by it. Any chuckles or smiles she gave were never mean or condescending. She seemed to find his candor endearing, as if she knew his heart was in the right place even if his mouth struggled sometimes to express it without what most considered to be the abrasive manner.

Tact seemed, to him, inefficient.

But it was getting easier. With her anyway. He had the room to practice safely, to grow. He wondered if perhaps his shyness as a child, his penchant for avoiding socialization with his peers, had greatly influenced his difficulty in speaking with people in his day-to-day life. 

He, frankly, tended to avoid it or sometimes didn’t even notice when they tried.

Liz was helping him in ways he wasn’t sure he would ever be able to adequately express to her directly in so many words.

And he liked it. Hell, he _loved_ it. Loved who he was, what she brought out in him when she was around. It was a comfortableness in himself he had not known for a very long time. Maybe even since his mother passed away, an event that had closed him off from the world, robbed him of the magic Liza told him he had when encouraging his art, is likely what made him ‘boring,’ as Master Vera so blithely put it.

Everything had turned to such shades of grey, and he understood more than he let on what Master Vera meant by her assertion, but he didn’t know what to _do_ about it.

He remembered the first time he took actual notice of Liz. Already distracted by her scent--hibiscus, he later realized--any time she came nearby, his attention had been drawn to her face when she offered him his favorite food and he was immediately taken aback by the very striking color of her eyes.

He was noticing _everyone’s_ eyes after that, finding that the shades of grey, which had definitely lessened, lightened over time, certainly, were starting to slowly peel back again as if Liz brought with her the sunshine he needed to drive those still-hovering clouds away and begin to brighten his life up once more.

He may have suddenly been able to tell anyone the color of their eyes without looking, but it was only that first pair who ever made it in his sketchbook, drawn over and over again like he could just never get them quite right.

He’d fallen in love with those eyes. And with the rest of her soon after, even if he hadn’t realized it.

~!**!~

“Back again, son?”

Gust didn’t look up from the shelves in his father’s office, only nodding as he turned another sheet of paper of the manila envelope he’d come to hold in his hand from the public town records he’d been perusing the last couple of days.

“Is it anything I can help with?” Gale made his way over to his desk as if he already knew Gust’s answer.

“Probably, but... I’d like to do this myself.” He smiled a little down at the pages as he flipped another, still not having found what he sought. “It’s a surprise.”

“Fair enough. I’ll leave you to it, then.”

~!**!~

A brief buffet of cold air swept through the house as Gust heard the front door open and close somewhere behind him.

“You’re back.”

“Gust, look what I found!”

“More junk?”

Liz gave the architect’s shoulder a friendly jostle as she leaned extra far over the couch--where he’d pulled it in front of the fireplace--to reach him. His long legs were crossed at the ankles, stretched out in front of him towards the fire and he’d actually seated himself on the floor to lean back against the furniture, bare feet warm near the hearth. But he was still within reach, even though Liz had to work for it.

“I never took you as the type to _tease_ people, art-boy.”

“I don’t tease _people_, Elizabeth. I only tease _you._” And he often surprised himself with it, though he hardly bothered to look at anybody else long enough to find things to tease them about.

Not that he was so much as flinching Liz’s direction in this specific case.

“You didn’t even _look!_” She protested, grinning at the back of his head and thinking how lovely his hair looked unbraided and all waving down past his shoulders like it was. He smelled faintly of the sweet honeycomb he used on it from time to time to keep it soft, and it mingled nicely with the fresh sandalwood scent that always seemed to be wafting around him.

“I don’t _have_ to look.” He was grinning down at the book in his hands plucked from a nearby shelf when he’d arrived home earlier. “All you ever bring _home_ is junk.” He waved his hand nebulously at the rest of the room which was fairly full of the knick-knacks and bric-a-brac she found while rune diving.

“Gust!” She protested in mock-offense, hearing in his tone the smile she couldn’t see, “I can’t believe you’d call all my hard work _junk!_ And here I thought you of all people would understand my fascination with old world relics! They have such lovely aesthetic!”

He gave a snort of derision at the assertion, still smiling, but not having so much as twitched to glance over his shoulder at her. “You think _everything_ has a lovely aesthetic.” 

“Because it does!”

“Caterpillars and animal feces do _not_ have lovely aesthetic.”

“I don’t bring _those_ into the house!” Often. “Or at least, I don’t put them on _display._ What about the model sailboat I found? Or the one of the plane, mm? Are _those_ junk, mister?” She teased, still half-hanging over the back of the couch in the hopes he’d turn around and look at what she had.

“They’re so-so.” He replied, his nose rising slightly to stick into the air.

“So-so my _ass_.”

“Now _that’s_ lovely aesthetic.”

Liz glared at him through the sudden blush to her cheeks, made aware in that moment of how aforementioned ‘lovely aesthetic’ was wiggling in the air as she tried to keep her balance and suddenly thankful Gust _hadn’t_ looked at her yet.

“No scathing reply, darling?”

“You...” The threat hung between them as she narrowed her eyes.

“-aren’t disagreeing with my assertion.” He finished for her after a beat, finally turning his head a little.

He heard her huff out a breath indicative of his successfully rendering her speechless.

“Would you just...look at what I found..._please_.” She grumbled.

Gust chuckled at her, but relented and twisted in place to prop an arm up on the back of the couch and look back.

When his eyes widened, she grinned and tilted the owl clock back and forth a little.

_“See.”_ She teased again, “Not junk.”

“I _suppose_ that’s at the very least better than most of the stuff you bring home.”

“Hmph!” She turned and stuck her nose in the air this time, starting to sidle her way off the back of the couch. “Well, if you don’t _like_ it, then I guess I could just give it to _Antoine_. _He_ at least seems to appreciate a few of the finer things in life.”

It was Gust’s turn to narrow his eyes, finding the prospect of one of the things she found that he actually did like _not_ being hung up somewhere displeasing.

“But you don’t have one of those yet.”

He knew about her apparent obsession with having at least one of everything she found lying around.

She slipped off the couch, nose still in the air, and made as if to move into the other room with the clock in her arms, leaving Gust scrambling to his feet.

“Well, if it isn’t going to be _appreciated_ I might as well get rid of it.”

He wrapped his arms around her from behind and planted a kiss against her cheek, “I concede: I actually like it well enough.”

“It’s not junk?”

“It’s not junk.”

She smiled and then abruptly turned around and he let go of her, “Okay, then, _you_ hang it up.”

Gust found himself suddenly holding the clock and blinking after her as she moved away, unsure of exactly how it happened as she turned to shuck off her coat and make for the kitchenette.

He let out an amused breath and shook his head at her as he went back into the other room to look for a place it could go.

“Was that really the only reason you made such a big production out of it? You wanted _me_ to hang it up?” He called. “You could have just asked.”

“I was going to, but then you called it junk!” She called back, “I really thought you would like it!”

“I do.”

“You _are_ so much taller than me though, I thought you’d have a better eye for where it could go.”

“You mean longer arms to find a place for it where you can’t reach.” He eyed the room, seeing the other places where she’d hung things and how most of it was within a particular range of height. “Since everywhere is already so full of-”

He stopped, but heard her grumble his name from the other room and found himself smiling again as he smoothly filled in, “Such lovely aesthetic,” and moved for a free spot on the wall to hang up the clock.

“Yeah, _that_ was what you were going to say.” She came back into the room with a tray in her hands and watched him finish and step back to admire it before he returned to where he had been sitting in front of the couch before she came home.

“It’s _your_ house. You can put whatever you like on the walls.”

“_You’re_ also living here,” She countered as she came closer, “You have to look at the walls just as much as I do. Maybe more.”

“Hmph.” He glanced up around the sides of the fireplace.

“I feel like it’s just as much your home as mine.” She said more thoughtfully, coming to stop standing next to him and looking around the room herself. “Or in any case,” She looked down at him with a smile, “It wouldn’t feel much like home anymore if you weren’t around.”

He met her gaze and returned her soft smile as she took one of the mugs from her tray to hand to him.

Gust chuckled as he looked down at the chocolatey liquid when she stepped away to place her own mug on an end table and take the tray back into the kitchen, “An Owl Clock. Cocoa. Are you just trying to butter me up so I’ll read to you again?”

They’d spent some time the last couple of days doing so when he caught her reading over his shoulder and got her to admit she liked it when he did.

He stretched out his legs towards the fire again to resume his earlier crossed-ankles, back-leaning-against-the-couch position.

“I’m certain I could find _something_ for you to read to me, if you were so inclined!” She called remorselessly from the other room.

He took another sip of the cocoa as he watched the crackling flames before him work to consume the logs in the fireplace.

“Are you going to come back and sit down?” He wanted to know when she didn’t immediately return, hearing her tinkering around and assuming she likely completely forgot her own mug of cocoa growing colder on the end table. 

She entered the room again and saw his eyes twinkling as he gestured to the side closest to her and held out his arm in the hopes she would come closer, “This side of me is chilly.”

His nonchalance had her giving a laugh as she moved for him, “I suppose I could do that instead.” She teased, “Weren’t you wanting to read me something, though?”

“Me?” He raised his eyebrows as she took his hand in the one that hadn’t snagged her cocoa on the way by, “I was under the impression _you_ enjoyed listening.”

“I was under the impression _you_ enjoyed reading to me.”

“Mm.” He pulled her down next to him and let her get comfortable against his side, wrapping his arm around her and keeping her snug against him. “I could think of other ways to occupy our time on an evening such as this.”

Liz had her knees up close to her chest as she rested her head against him, serenely regarding the dancing fire as she held her mug in fingers still somewhat chilled from the temperature of the day.

“And what sort of evening _is_ this?”

He had leaned over to press his lips to her temple, earning the most contented sigh for his affections that had him smiling against her.

“It’s a very cold one.”

“Is it?”

Gust pouted, “I haven’t been warm all day.”

“That sounds terrible!”

“I hate Winter.” He intoned somewhat grumpily.

“No!”

“Yes. No good ever came from this ridiculous season.”

“That can’t be true!”

“It is-” He replied definitely. “-the worst.”

“It’s so peaceful!”

“Everything’s dead.”

“And the snow is beautiful!”

“It makes an awful sound when I walk on it and it’s my least favorite kind of weather.”

“There must be _something_ redeemable about it.”

Gust appeared to consider it, “I can’t think of a single thing.”

“What about hot cocoa?”

“Hm.”

“And cuddling up next to the fire?”

“I suppose that isn’t the worst.”

Liz gave him a grin that he spied out of the corner of his eye.

He turned and kissed her forehead, “But if it wasn’t so blasted _cold,_ we wouldn’t _have_ to do _either_ of those things.”

“We wouldn’t _get_ to do either of those things.” She corrected, eyes closing as she smiled when he spoke against her skin.

“You always smell so lovely.” He murmured, kissing her again as his own eyes drew closed.

Liz nudged her face gently against his, then turned her nose up to catch his mouth with her lips, planting a sweet kiss there and tasting the mix of chocolate and spice from the cocoa when she let him gently part her lips with his tongue, seeking to caress it against hers.

The fingers he had at her back lightly toyed with the edge of her shirt, occasionally grazing against the skin underneath when he could find it, and Liz held her mug close to her chest to free up one hand and rest it against his torso.

Setting his own mug to the side as they kissed, Gust reached down towards his belt and untucked a part of his button-up and tank top before taking Liz’s hand and encouraging her to slip it under them and be against his skin instead.

He murmured something incoherent, but positive, between them when she started to lightly graze her fingers across his abdomen, feeling his muscles quiver involuntarily at her touch.

She _felt_ the appreciation from him for her attention more so than _heard_ him give the hum against her lips, and when she shifted all at once up from his side to straddle his legs and continue their kisses, her indication of his approval of the decision came in the form of his relinquishing her own mug from her grasp to put it somewhere likely near his own and pulling at her wrist until her palm rested against his sternum before he let his hands find her hips and encourage her as close as he could manage.

Taking the hand he’d placed right up on the buttons of his shirt as her invitation, while their mouths continued moving heatedly against one another, one set of Liz’s fingers searched deftly for each button to set them free as the other took handfuls of the shirts around his waistband to do similarly.

Gust welcomed the feeling of the shirt hanging to either side of him and felt himself rise up slightly to meet her hands as she ran her palms up his abdomen from his waist beneath his tank until she sat chest to chest with him and leaned into him, her hands moving around his sides to press into his back before making a similar but opposing downward motion he groaned into as he might have sworn her touch left trails of flame against his skin

All at once Liz abruptly pulled away from his lips and his eyes fluttered open to see her searching his face, her hands resting against his bare chest where she’d pushed the tank up, but poised to pull away at any moment.

“I-Is this okay?”

Somewhere distant he appreciated her desire to hear him _say_ it, but, “Oh, _god,_ yes.” One of his hands circled around beneath her to give her rear a squeeze as he shifted his hips beneath her upwards far enough to grind once against her to reassure her of his arousal. He was rewarded with an answering sound from the back of her throat as his other hand reached for her neck to pull her back towards him, “Please don’t stop,” and he smothered her noise by eagerly seeking to press his lips against hers again.

Their heartbeats pounding in their ears as the kisses started to leave them breathless, after just one or two more Liz’s hands left where they had been testing various pressures against him and he almost protested except she kept kissing him until eventually she leaned back farther to finish pulling her shirt off over her head, meeting his lips again as soon as it was tossed to the side.

Her hands came up to cup his face as they continued drawing their lips over one another, more fervently now, and Liz would have sworn she felt him twitch beneath her as the soft fabric of her bra teased his skin, giving away the stiffness of the aroused nipples hidden behind it. When the pressure at her rear increased the weight of her against him, Liz realized Gust’s ‘twitch’ was actually a grinding of his hips that had started becoming more insistent as she felt one of his legs bend at the knee behind her and prop her up more fully onto his lap.

Now finding the jeans she wore to be almost frustratingly in the way, Gust relented his grip on her ass just long enough to circumvent her clothing completely so he could massage properly at the round, yielding flesh, pressing his fingers into it intermittently as her own hips began rolling forward.

The both of them breathing heavily, Liz left his lips to kiss down the side of his face as their pleasured moans mingled together and Gust leaned his head away from her so she might keep going. The hand he originally had at her neck dropped to her waist, but he forgot to do anything else with it except hold her as another sound escaped his throat when she pushed the strap of his tank top and collar of his shirt aside to nip all the way down his neck to the top of his shoulder.

The air of the room moved across the wet places she left with her kisses and when she went back to his neck to suck at it, he groaned and gripped tighter, running the hand at her waist up her back and as he came in contact with the material she still wore, quickly searching for the clasp and feeling pleased when she made quick work of slipping it away once undone.

Gust sat up taller, then, and completely changed his hold of her so that he scooped one arm beneath her. As he lifted her up, he bent his head to run his tongue across her collar bone, hearing her murmur with pleasure, and continued his leisurely descent and lifting of her until when he next opened his eyes her breasts were quite satisfactorily within reach and he captured one nipple between his lips, sucking gently at it.

“Oh- Gust- Please-”

He felt her fingers dig into his shoulders and he could tell by the staggered rhythm of her breathing she would be absolutely ready for anything he might choose to do with her at that moment.

Doing what he thought she was asking of him in the immediacy, he sucked more firmly at her as he brushed the other one with the pad of his thumb and felt her hands shifting against him again like she didn’t know where they ought to be.

Her hips were rolling slightly against his stomach like she would have been more than willing for him to move onto other things, but when he gave one last _hard_ suckle to the first, he only left it to switch over to the other one.

As her back arched like he needed more encouragement to continue, Liz found herself looking down at him through her heated gaze to see him make the lateral move.

This one he ran his tongue over first before taking it past his lips to the tune of her pleasant moans, knowing that in all honesty he could have done this alone for hours. Not only did he appreciate her scent and her taste, but just the sensation of these soft, yet firm mounds against his face was simultaneously erotic and as well as comforting. Gust reveled in all of it, in the contrast of the texture of the skin of the rest of her breasts to the hardened nipple at which he continued his ministrations.

For her part, Liz certainly wouldn’t have minded Gust continuing as long as he liked. He would occasionally let her breast leave the warmth of his mouth to be met with the cooler air of the room as he might tease the tip of her areola with the edge of his tongue and send tingles shooting through her body as if it might harden further if it could.

Gust ducked his head to the side of her, nipping down her skin towards Liz’s ribs and feeling her writhe so wonderfully in his grasp, more than confident she would speak up at something he tried that she didn’t like, though her stilted gasps and cries of enjoyment as her breath hitched with each bite against them left him rather confident as to her feelings at the time.

Giving her a chance to catch her breath, he suckled pleasantly at her again even as he took one hand and began teasing at the skin just above her jeans. His searching fingertips caressed with the lightest touches just above, sometimes just below the edge of her clothing as he continued massaging his lips and teeth and tongue over her breast, finally slipping those same fingertips far enough past her clothing down the front of her just enough to have her hands tense at his shoulders again while she murmured his name half in panting anticipation.

As he continued rolling his tongue over, sucking at, and gently taking her erect nipple into his teeth to tug it, his hand slid out from her jeans more quickly than it had entered and flipped to find first the button and then the zipper.

In growing expectation of his intentions, as Liz got her knees beneath herself, Gust released his hold on her and started to kiss down between her breasts as his hands smoothed over her sides towards her waistband. 

He paused in his kisses just long enough for Liz to blink her mind back into place and before she had enough breath to ask him once more if things were okay, she felt him softly, sweetly kiss a line down her torso and looked down to watch him do so.

Gust pressed his lips against each inch of the scar the Rogue Knight left on her, its former wickedness now somewhat faded, but the white mark of the drawn skin still prominent down her body.

Liz bent over him when he pulled away to let out a small sigh and she cupped her hands around his face to try and get him to look up at her and when he did, covered his sad smile with a kiss, feeling him gently release her back onto his lap as his hands went to move soothingly across her back.

“I...hadn’t really gotten a good look at it before.” He leaned his forehead against hers, hugging her to him.

“It’s much better than it was.”

He nodded a bit. 

“I sort of saw it that one evening we all spent in the spa, but only barely. Does it ever hurt?” He let his arms slide down to rest atop her thighs, around her hips, and entwined his fingers together behind her somewhere near the small of her back.

Her hands moved to either side of his neck at his shoulders, “When it’s gonna rain it-” She blinked a little, thinking about how she’d had nightmares about _that_ too: the blade sinking into her flesh and waking her with a start. “It...feels a little stiff sometimes.”

Her wording unfortunately reminded him of his current predicament, which continued to pulse insistently beneath her, but he’d been able to ignore it when he caught sight of what was left of the wound she’d received not so long ago. 

Gust let out a sigh at himself that she misinterpreted.

“It’s okay. Really. It hurt at first, but-”

“That wasn’t exactly what I was sighing about.”

She tilted her head at him and he sighed again as he leaned away from her and reached up to tuck part of her hair behind an ear, “What am I to do with you, mm?”

“Whatever you wish, I suppose.” She replied, head still titled a bit as she looked questioningly at him, having not guessed at his train of thought.

His hand near her ear left it to reach between them and lightly touch her lips with his fingertips and he watched her close her eyes even as he pulled her closer again.

The warmth of his breath ghosted across her lips where he had touched them. His next kiss was brief, a whispered presence, barely any pressure at all. Gust only left her for a second before pressing to a different spot. As he retreated this time, Liz dragged her lower lip across his and kissed him back as a smile fluttered across his features. He responded by brushing his bottom lip all along hers and then partway back before pausing to kiss her just as briefly as he had the first time.

These sorts of moments between them were new ones for Gust, too different from previous experiences to make him think of any, kisses that made him feel as if he had never really been kissed before and very conscious of the feel of her soft, delicate lips against his own. For Liz, too, it seemed like such innocent but equally sensual touch which would almost make her forget there _was_ more than this, and she felt a shiver go down her spine when he lightly traced the outline of her lips with his tongue. Her heart began to pound in her ears once more as he drew her bottom lip into his mouth, nipped it with his teeth and then sucked on it lightly before slowly letting go of it. Gust sat there with her for a moment, lips not quite touching and Liz almost afraid to even move for fear of breaking the spell.

This time Gust leaned forward and slanted his mouth over hers, gently parted the seam of her lips with his tongue as if asking permission. The gesture just seemed to make Liz’s heart beat faster, swearing it might swell out of her chest at any moment as they continued sharing kisses in this way, the poignant attentions independent of other actions making them hyper aware of the tender exchanges.

“Gust, I-” Liz’s eyes had come apart at the seams, watching his mouth at a moment when they parted for breath.

_I love you._

The thought made her heart give a small dip as he sat there waiting for her to continue.

Her fingers trailed down the sides of his neck to shift his shirt completely off his shoulders and Liz slipped her hands to the backs of his arms as she continued taking the article of clothing with her, sliding her fingers down his skin as she kissed the side of his mouth and then kept planting her kisses back towards his ear and then trailing them down his neck.

Gust froze when he felt his arms becoming trapped between her and the couch and the way she was slowly pulling down his shirt, his range of movement rapidly deteriorating as his hands, his hold on her shifted away without his direct say-so.

Lungs tightening so as to make him forget to breathe, he couldn’t even manage a single word as Liz’s hands found the floor behind him and rested there on top of his shirt instead of moving away anywhere else while her kisses across his shoulder continued.

Returning to his face, Liz only noticed something was wrong when she kissed his lips and he didn’t respond, didn’t even move. When she pulled back, brows twitching with questioning, she was met with a wide-eyed fear she’d never seen him wear that clutched at her heart in an iron-wrought grasp as she similarly froze.

“Gust? Gust, what’s wrong?” She reached up like she wanted to hold his face in her hands, but only got them a few inches from his cheeks, all at once aware that maybe _more_ touching was the opposite of what he needed.

His hyperventilations were coming quietly out of his nose almost as soon as the pressure at his arms lifted, his vision already starting to tunnel in as a voice from his past began speaking words to him he wished he couldn’t hear, memories he wished he could forget flashing across his mind’s eye and returning him to the terror of the past even in the midst of the genuine safety of the present.

“What can I do?” Trying to shove away her own panic, Liz searched Gust’s eyes desperately for an answer, hands still held in limbo to either side of his head.

“Get off.” His curt response had no venom in it, only cut short and terse.

Liz scrambled reflexively to the side off of him and as the pressure of her weight lifted, he quickly added, “Don’t leave.” 

His hand shifted like it wanted to grab for hers, but the tug of his shirt at his elbows restrained him and he swallowed as his heart began to pound more intensely in his chest.

“Gust, I’m so sorry-”

A quick jerk of his head cut her off her anxious voice and just as soon as he could gather enough wits about him, he hurriedly stripped the shirt from his arms now that she was completely away from him and dropped it between them like it burnt his flesh. He crossed his arms over his chest, clutching his hands to his arms as he pulled his knees up to his chest, frantically trying to remember what he used to do when this would happen in Atara.

“M-My sketchbook.” He managed to stammer as his fingers shifted against his skin, his hair falling in disarray over his shoulders as he rocked in place just a little, feeling all at once guilt and shame and- _It wasn’t even **that** shirt; what’s wrong with me??_

Liz had pulled her lips between her teeth and chewed at them anxiously as he sat next to her and his next words set her to blinking at him as she processed what he might mean.

Clambering to her feet after a breath, Liz grabbed for a shirt to tug on herself as she darted into the other room where she knew he kept his things and snatched his sketchbook the instant she spotted it, dashing back into the other room and holding it out for him.

She watched one of his hands reach for it, watched it shakily take hold of it.

“Oh _shit,_ hold on-” She let go and ran back into the other room.

Gust’s amusement at her having forgotten, presumably, a drawing utensil, was a drop in the ocean of the emotions roiling through his entire body as he accepted the book and rapidly started flipping through pages in an attempt to find an empty one he could use.

Liz returned quickly and held out the pencil she found, Gust reaching for it without looking at her.

She tried not to wring her hands together, still able to see his discomfort plain in his body language and at a complete loss in the face of it.

Gust gave her a glance while bent over the book, the intense pressure at his chest having lifted, but his mind still reeling and unfocused and his breathing anything but calm.

“Sit.”

Liz collapsed onto her knees next to him, kneeling where she’d stopped to hand him the pencil a foot or so away. 

He glanced at her again when he found an empty page and all at once set the book and pencil aside as an idea occurred to him and he let his focus tunnel into it immediately, turning towards her and shifting closer so she would be within his reach.

Afraid to do anything at all, Liz only watched as his hands came closer until one of them circled around her calf between it and her thigh where she sat.

At his insistent tug, she let him move it, ending up sitting on her other hip as he tapped her waist and bent her legs just so out next to her.

His face seemed much more concentrated now, intent on posing her as he wished, and he came close enough to lean her shoulder against the edge of the couch, taking her wrists and dropping them in her lap until her hands were between her knees and then gently touching her chin until she had her face shifted over and down, almost looking over at the shoulder against the couch, but not quite.

Liz stayed quiet and as still as she could manage as she heard Gust grabbing for the sketchbook and pencil followed by the sound of lines drawn across paper in a much less frantic fashion than she would have initially guessed he might have done given the circumstances.

As her own breathing slowed, so did Gust’s, the terror of the moment slipping away as he busied himself with the portrait and found himself subconsciously syncing his intake to hers as his eyes roamed over the lines of her body, and the comforting familiarity of the sketching helped to ground him back into his body and the room and away from the sudden panic that had overtaken him.

She was beautiful.

Gust watched her cheeks take on the slightest flush as his gaze continued to return to her, following the curves of her figure that were partially hidden by the too-large shirt she’d pulled onto her shoulders before rushing from the room.

_His_ shirt.

It gaped open down the front of her in just the right way to reveal enough of the roundness of her chest to accent it, especially the way he’d posed her arms around the outside of them to bring them closer together, maintaining her dignity while still being a surprisingly provocative view. He’d shuffled part of the material over her shoulder off where it would catch where her arm was positioned and not fall completely away and left the cuffs just barely over her hands as to indicate that the sleeves really were too long for her arms.

He sketched each fold and button with care, her pants still unbuttoned and unzipped to reveal the top of her underclothing between the opening of the shirt and the position of her arms, shadowed the points of light where the fire danced along her profile the most flatteringly, and somewhere else in his mind managed to still drink in the very sight of her even as he replicated it onto the page.

Several minutes passed in near-silence this way until one sweep of Gust’s eyes nearly made him smile again and he flipped his pencil briefly to erase something.

“Are you cold?”

Liz didn’t move, but she couldn’t say she’d rightly noticed if she were cold or not, too caught up in watching the peace returning to Gust’s features when her glances his direction would go unnoticed.

“What makes you ask?”

His eyes moved up to her again, then back down as he fixed a line or two of her frame that had changed just slightly the draping of the shirt.

“Well,” He began, “You’re either cold...” His lips twitched, “...or you _especially_ enjoy my watching you.”

Liz found she didn’t have anything to say, blushing a little deeper and acutely aware now of how her breasts had drawn up, grown just a little more firm underneath his piercing gaze and brushing just obviously enough against the material of his shirt to cause his original question.

“I would get onto you for moving, but I don’t think it was something you could particularly help, hm?”

She remembered his reprimands the _last_ time she’d posed for him and instead of managing to come up with any reply, kept her eyes on the couch next to her and said nothing.

Liz didn’t even look up when she thought she heard him put pencil and paper aside and come closer and as such, she watched his left hand come to rest its palm against her stomach, his watch glinting a little in the firelight as his slender fingers snaked their way up between her breasts and shifted over to draw a lazy circle around the outside of one of them before coming to rest at the small of her back.

When she looked up at him, his face was inches from hers, eyes much calmer now if perhaps a little tired, and she welcomed the warm kiss he had for her lips, closing her eyelids as she slowly kissed him back.

“I’m so sorry.” He mumbled to her when he’d pulled just far enough away so that they were no longer touching, part of his hair brushing against her collarbone and down her chest and his hand shifting against her where it came to settle against her back, having _needed_ to feel her skin beneath his fingers.

Liz’s eyes came open to see the regret darkening his features.

“Can I hug you?”

He nodded and sat back as she wrapped her arms around him and tucked her head beneath his chin. Gust tipped his face towards her hair and buried his nose in it, taking a deep breath.

“You have nothing to apologize for. I’m sorry I-” She didn’t even know what she had done, frankly, but now that his terror had passed she felt nothing but guilt. “-I didn’t notice sooner.”

She felt his ribs expand under her arms and his breath fluttered the bits of her hair near his mouth, “It’s okay. It- I-”

Already full of remorse for having ruined whatever earlier mood they’d had, Gust’s eyes squeezed shut and he let out a short breath before continuing.

“I used to have them regularly.” He murmured as he started to move his hand up and down her back, “So often. Sketching helps. It’s all I would do some days. Just to keep everything that reminded me at bay. It mostly worked. Worked better the more I turned to it.”

Gust started to shift around and stand up, pulling Liz to her feet as well, “It’s not your fault, trust me-”

“Well it’s certainly not _yours_.” Liz retorted somewhat fiercely as she glared up at him for even suggesting it.

He let out a breath of amusement, and his gaze dropped away from her, “They became fewer and farther between as I learned how to avoid everything--” And everyone, “--that made me anxious.” As he learned to shut down, shut out, ignore anything that might get in the way of his training. “It hadn’t happened for a very long time. I was due for another one.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“I’m not blaming you for any of it.”

“I know, but I still feel like it was my fault.”

He shrugged a little, “It was bound to happen at some point. I’m...quite honestly surprised it took this long.” His cheeks tinged pink and left Liz blinking up at him, a smile starting to try and dance its way across her features.

“Is that so?”

“I’m quite comfortable with you, you know.” He really _was_ surprised he’d come this far without completely breaking down in front of her, but she was just so _different_ from past encounters...

“...can we talk about what else might trigger it? I feel so bad...”

He looked down to see her staring mournfully at the fire.

Now that he had an idea of what sorts of things could become a problem, he nodded. And of course, everything right up until that point had been especially nice.

She didn’t see his nod and Gust reached down to pick her up, but paused, his movement catching her attention and Liz caught sight of his arms near her waist and peered up at him to see a gleam to his eye.

“Take off your pants and we can talk about it in bed.” He told her somewhat loftily. 

She almost smiled at him, but managed to only raise her eyebrows, “And how, praytell, do my _pants_ have anything to do with that conversation?”

“I like the feeling of your skin against mine.” Gust replied blithely, pulling his arms back from her to strip his tank top over his head.

When she noticed him reaching to remove his undershirt, she similarly moved to shimmy her jeans from her hips.

“All of it.” He tipped his chin at her so she hooked her thumbs into her undergarment as well when she went for her waistband, though she raised an eyebrow up at him as she did so. “So that I don’t have to bother with it _later._” After he got some rest. Right now he really just wanted to curl up with her, exhausted.

Liz scoffed at the implication, perfectly content to not risk any further mishaps at _all,_ but also doing as he said.

“Everything you did was _fine_ up until that point. _More_ than fine.” Gust bent down and slipped his hands beneath his shirt she wore to wrap his arms around her waist the moment she stepped free of her other clothing. He lifted her up against him, platforming his arms together beneath her rear so she had a seat to rest on as she opened her knees to hug his sides and let her ankles cross together somewhere at his lower back.

“What _wasn’t_ fine?” Liz frowned, only moving to embrace his neck when he glanced pointedly at her arms.

He gently kissed her frown before he started moving for the other room, then let out a small sigh and admitted, “You...had me trapped...or- I mean, that’s what it felt like. It’s-” He swallowed, suddenly unsure if he could explain it in any more detail without having another episode and not having originally thought it would be this difficult to talk about.

“Gust, can I play with your hair?” Liz saw the sudden confusion in his gaze as she completely changed the subject on him.

If talking about the other stuff made him uncomfortable, she didn’t want to press him on it. Maybe one day he’d be able to talk to her about all of it, but for now she at least had some sort of idea as to what _not_ to do anyway. And he’d said everything up to then was fine, so she’d just go back to being careful again, not trying anything else without asking.

Which included the urge she had to run her fingers through his thick, wavy hair.

“Would it bother you if I did that?”

“No?” He finally answered at her second inquiry. “I don’t think so?”

No one besides his sister or his mother had ever really ‘played’ with his hair, though since she didn’t have a brush or anything in her grasp, Gust wasn’t entirely sure what she meant.

“I’m going to try it, okay?”

Gust stared at her expression, at her slightly pursed lips, as she stared back to make sure she could catch any hint at all of her actions being unwelcome.

She sat back a little in his arms and loosened her grip around his neck, slowly and steadily unwinding an arm to reach over and gently tuck part of his hair behind an ear. When he just kept looking at her with a curiously expectant air, she kept her hand going to run her fingers lightly against his scalp towards the back of his head and Gust couldn’t have said for sure when his eyes closed or when he slowed in his movement for the bed in the other room, or why exactly he found himself leaning into her hand.

Liz moved her fingers through it all, reaching up with the other hand when he closed his eyes to ruffle that hand into and bury it in the midst of it all as well, her eyes finally lifting from his face to regard the halo that was his hair curling in places around his features.

She gently ran strands of it between her fingers all the way to the ends, sometimes massaging at his scalp in places, sometimes just deeply entwining and tangling her fingers in it and enjoying the feeling of its fluffy fullness.

“It’s so soft.” She murmured and he nodded slightly, mumbling back: “This feels good,” and finally opening his eyes again to close the last of the distance between them and kiss her, picking up his feet to start walking forward and continuing to kiss her gently the rest of the way to the bed.


	31. Gust: Winter 28

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Gust shows the Builder something important...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> June 14th, 2020 Update: Went back and fixed many (so many) spelling errors and the like all throughout the story.
> 
> Please stay safe and well, everyone!

“Can I do anything?” Liz shuffled over to where Gust stood at the kitchenette and he leaned over to kiss her forehead as she shifted the blanket around her shoulders.

“You can go sit.” He let his gaze flicker over to the couch and nodded towards it. “You work hard all week. The least you can do is let me take care of you on a day when you have little to do.”

“You work hard all week too.” She pouted, making a smile ghost across his face as he kissed those pouting lips again briefly.

“That’s different. Go sit.”

“S’not different.” She grumbled half-heartedly, but already started turning away.

“My work is not nearly as taxing as yours.” He reached down to nudge his hand encouragingly at her hip, gently pushing her in the direction he wanted her to go. “Go on.”

She let out a sigh as she kept moving.

The next time he saw her, he came around the corner with a mug in each hand to her sitting cross-legged on the couch, hunched over a little and staring into the flames of the merrily burning fireplace and let out another sigh he could hear halfway across the room even as he came closer.

“Something wrong?”

Her gaze lifted to roam around the rest of the blocky fireplace as he handed her a mug.

“I just-” Another sigh as she lifted it to her lips, “I wanted to make it better, that’s all.” She mumbled into the drink.

He sat next to her and lifted an arm to rest across her shoulders as she leaned back into the couch.

“You will.” He eyed the bricks and lines she’d laid all that time ago. “I don’t think either one of us was really willing to be without before Spring.”

She let out another sigh, knowing he was right.

After taking another sip or two himself, Gust spoke up: “I had something I wanted to show you today, if you’re feeling up for going out.”

Liz gave him a look, “Isn’t it supposed to snow?”

He raised and lowered a shoulder, “I think it’s already snowing a little bit.”

Trying to scrutinize his face, Liz watched as he just looked into the fire and lifted his mug to his lips again.

Gust _hated_ Winter. And as for wanting to go out in his least favorite weather...

Liz wasn’t sure what he was up to--genuinely wasn’t remotely suspicious of his wish in any case--and felt taken aback by his assertion.

She nodded, though, knowing whatever he wanted to show her had to be pretty important for him to speak up about it now and agreed to it without further hesitation, “Okay.”

It was such a strange request...

~!**!~

Gust held her hand the entire way from her workshop, through Peach’s Plaza, and up the little hill past the cafe.

Yes, it was _cold_, but he’d been planning this for at least a week and her fingers curling warmly around his own fought back some of the chill in any case.

It wasn’t...the worst thing in the world. The snow really was very pretty, especially the way it would catch on her eyelashes when she turned her face up into the clouds just a little like she could watch them falling.

“I...hope this is okay.” He said at last as he pushed aside the entrance to the graveyard, Liz confused at first, but thinking perhaps he wanted her to sit with him at his mother’s grave one last time before the season changed.

When he didn’t move for the back of the graveyard, but stepped to the left to weave through a few of the stones, her confusion returned.

“I didn’t think you’d considered the idea for yourself, but something about the timing got me thinking, so I scoured the town records-”

As he spoke, a bouquet of flowers sitting atop one of the graves they were moving for caught Liz’s eye.

“-and asked Dr. Xu if he’d saved any hibiscus he’d been growing in his garden this year from the freeze.” Gust looked a little self-conscious, and squeezed her hand, “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to ask about her favorite flower and give anything away.”

They had finally come to a stop in front of the gravestone, Liz still staring down at the bouquet with a certain stillness as understanding just began to dawn across her mind.

She didn’t even have to look at the name on the grave to confirm it, but she did, seeing that the years had likely covered it in a swathe of dirt, but that a lot of it had been brushed away so the name would be clear enough to read.

When the silence grew, Gust shifted uncomfortably, suddenly unsure if he really _had_ stepped over a boundary.

She hadn’t said anything, hadn’t even really moved, though her hand was still curled around his own.

When her grip tightened and he looked down at her, he saw her other hand had come up to cover her face and the slight shake of her shoulders made him wonder if she was crying.

He stared down at the hibiscus, picked by Dr. Xu from his indoor cultivator and placed there this morning by Gust, already berating himself for this _stupid_ idea and _why_ did he decide to meddle and it was her _birthday_ after all, and just because _he_ would have wanted to know-

Liz tugged on his hand and as he turned towards her, she let go of it to wrap her arms around his waist and bury her face in his chest to sob against him.

This definitely made Gust feel much worse, even as he sighed and went to embrace her back for as long as she needed him to.

He only spoke up when he felt her sobs subsiding somewhat, “Elizabeth, I’m so sorry I-”

Gust fell silent when she shook her head and she slowly pulled away as her hands moved up to find his cheeks. He leaned over her as she seemed to want him to do, but he still didn’t feel as if he deserved the warmth of the kiss she pressed to his lips.

She leaned her forehead into his and sniffed.

“I’m sorry.” He mumbled a second time.

She shook her head at him again, “Gust, I- I didn’t even know she was _here_, no one ever-” She’d never _wanted_ a present for her birthday, but if she was going to get one...she couldn’t think of one better. 

Her face scrunched up a little and this time he tipped his chin to softly kiss her back once before she could go on, “...thank you...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GAH I just watched the teaser vid Pathea released today [April 9th, 2020] about some updates that are coming to Portia and I'm pretty excited, guys!! The first one seems pretty basic, maybe fleshing out some side quests for various characters, but it looks like the new one is adding a couple of characters and some extra end-game content, yay!


	32. Gust: Finally (Rated: E)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Gust finally explains...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is rated E for Explicit Sexual Content.
> 
> There is also some rough language in this one.
> 
> TW: Discussion/Brief Depiction of Rape  
(That part starts towards the end of the chapter, so once he starts his monologue telling the story of how he ended up leaving for school/Atara, it would be easy to skip all the way to the bottom for the last several lines if that sort of thing bothers you as Gust warms up to the moment and doesn't just dive right into what happens. It's outside the usual realm of what I would write, especially for this sort of fic, but after having planted hints about it throughout the rest of the story, I thought it deserved the attention it gets here, especially since it's something that has so greatly shaped my version of Gust, and I hope it helps explain the way I wrote his character a little better. No, I don't know of any indication that it is canon; it's something that evolved purely out of thin air as I was going along with this fic.)
> 
> A/N: *waves sheepishly* It's been four months between chapters, but a lot has happened in four months as I'm sure you're all aware no matter where you're from and, well, here we are. I *did* say I wanted to finish this story, and I definitely plan on it, even now. I certainly hope it won't be another four months between this chapter getting posted and the next, though. 
> 
> This one was hard to get through for many reasons, but here it is!

Winter turned to Spring and with the changing of the seasons came the busyness of the new year.

Portia’s expansion continued under the watchful eye of its mayor, the Builders working harder than ever on the commissions the budding life of the Spring allowed. 

And so too did Gust and Albert’s construction business gain increasing clientele as the more pleasant weather allowed for the more ambitious of projects to request their handiwork, both at home and abroad.

Among such projects was the expansion to Liz’s house, which Liz tackled just as soon as she could find time in the first couple of weeks, anxious to see Gust’s vision realized as well as tear down the old fireplace and build a new installment with everything she’d learned over the past year.

To accommodate the new offshoot of the main room of the house, she shifted the fixture over to the left so that it would remain in the center of the building, cognizant such a position might afford it to heat the entire house best, as opposed to putting it in the new room.

She used bricks in the shape of triangles.

As she was able, Liz began moving many of the relics she found into the newest room--donating any and all repeats to the new museum curated by Merlin--and Gust picked out new flooring and wallpaper to install as they went. 

Apparently, despite the decrease in work--or maybe because of it--Albert had kept himself _plenty_ busy that Winter with his new wife Sonia, and Portia welcomed its newest arrival not even two weeks into Spring: Albert Jr. 

Gust watched as Albert seemed to grow more and more content with his lot in life, settling further into Portia than Gust ever imagined he would, and Gust himself thought of his own dreams and aspirations. 

Originally, he never meant to stay in Portia forever, only waiting until his sister was happily married before he sought to chase after his own dreams.

Certainly, Gust still aspired to be the greatest designer, to leave his mark on the world, but now...it seemed, like Albert, he had found something just as important to him as this need to have his name written up somewhere in one of those books Liz enjoyed hearing him read.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Hum?” Gust glanced over at his red-haired sister, one hand shoved into a pocket as they strolled down the road towards the river, the sun already disappeared beyond the horizon.

She hid a chuckle behind one of her hands, “I said, ‘what are you thinking about?’ You’ve been so distracted all evening.”

“Sorry...” He turned back to watch the path ahead of them.

“It’s okay. But you know you can tell me anything, right?”

Gust let out a sigh, but didn’t immediately answer her.

He didn’t seem to notice she continued eyeing him or that she started speaking again.

“-and they’re right.”

“What?”

“You’ve changed.” She repeated.

“What does that even mean.”

Ginger shrugged a little, “Exactly what it sounds like, I suppose.”

He made a noncommittal sort of noise.

“I know you don’t really care what they think, but everyone’s noticed.”

“Everyone, huh.” Gust repeated skeptically.

Ginger nodded as she went to sit down next to the river, Gust dropping to stretch out next to her.

“I thought Russo’s eyes were going to bulge out of his head when you gave him that bonsai.”

Gust grunted again as he closed his eyes.

“And I was sure father would die of a heart attack when you handed him the painting.”

The scoff Gust let out belied the upward curl of his lips, suggesting at Ginger’s glance the sound was more akin to a chuckle than a noise of derision.

“Other people are talking about it too. You should have seen their faces at Django’s when we went the other night. I think half of them thought you were being serious. They’d never heard you make a joke before.”

Gust vaguely recalled some dry comment or another; his amusement had increased tenfold when Liz choked on her food trying not to laugh.

“It surprised me, too.” She admitted, “You usually aren’t paying enough attention for that sort of thing.”

He said nothing, aware on some level she kept scrutinizing him like he might give something or another away.

What, exactly, he wasn’t sure.

“She makes you happy.”

Ginger turned away to watch the rushing of the water as Gust blinked his eyes open and looked over at her.

“I’m glad.”

~!**!~

His nights with Ginger were longer nowadays, if only because his arrival at his father’s house was not the end of his evening.

After escorting her in the door and saying farewell, he would turn and meander back down the hill towards home.

Funny how quickly he’d thought of it as home. It hadn’t hardly been a full season.

His thoughts on the journey back were mostly empty, still somewhat tired due to the hour of the night despite the fact that he’d fallen asleep next to Ginger like always and gotten a decent nap.

Though Ginger’s commentary about him ‘coming out of his shell’ had him letting out another breath of scoffing laughter, shaking his head a little.

Part of him didn’t exactly understand what she meant.

Part of him knew why, or rather _who_ was responsible. 

Portia was quiet this time of night, the shops all closed and the people in bed for the most part, so nothing barred his path back down the lane out of Peach’s Plaza towards the workshop next to the road.

The workshop coming into view made him recall how, hours earlier, Liz had ushered him out the door so he wouldn’t be late meeting with Ginger.

Thoughts turning to Elizabeth as he neared the door, without realizing it, Gust started smiling. 

Ever since his episode at the last of Winter, and now that the weather was much nicer, she’d taken to wearing his button-down shirts to bed every so often when he later expressed his liking the sight, and he had to admit there was something exceptionally satisfying about seeing her in them.

And that was besides the fact she most often was wearing very little, if anything, underneath.

As he reached for the doorknob, he frowned, hearing something from just beyond the portal and ducking inside the house to take a look around.

This was certainly not the time of year to have the fire going, but Gust was fairly positive he could hear aggravated shuffling of some kind coming from the couch Liz had placed in a more permanent position with another recliner in a semi-circle around the new fireplace.

“Elizabeth?” Gust slipped his loafers from his feet to leave near the door as he moved across the room in the lowlight of one of the dimmed lanterns on the wall.

While somewhere pleased to see her in one of his shirts when he spotted her from over the back of the couch, he called her name more urgently as he rounded the furniture, having seen the torment on her features and the blanket half tangled in her legs, half discarded onto the rug.

She was sweating, but he reached for her anyway as he knelt next to the couch, calling her name again softly while gently resting a hand to her cheek, afraid to disturb her in a way that might make things worse.

One of her hands reached up to clutch at his arm rather violently and after a sudden, sharp intake of breath Liz’s eyes flew open, unfocused and still in the midst of nightmaric visions.

“Liz, it’s okay. I’m right here.” Gust leaned forward and started to embrace her.

Her brow immediately furrowed together as she shifted to curl her arms around his neck and bury her face at the crook of it, starting to sob with relief even as he pulled her gently from the couch and sat on the floor with her in his lap, rocking her slowly and murmuring reassurances into her ear.

One arm tightly around her, pressing, almost squeezing her to his chest, the other stroked its way through her hair or took to moving across her scalp.

“I’m so sorry I wasn’t here.” He finally said when her shoulders stopped shaking, planting a kiss in the midst of her hair before resting his chin over her like he’d had it before.

She sniffed and then let out a breathy bit of laughter and gripped him tighter for a moment, “You really need to stop apologizing for things that aren’t your fault, art-boy.”

“But if I’d been here-”

“Shut up and hold me.”

That got him to smile and he kissed her and fell silent.

Eventually, Liz let out a sigh and sat back, leaning into the couch behind her and smiling up at Gust who responded by immediately bending over her and pressing his lips to her neck before pulling back to lift a hand to her cheek again and search her gaze with his own.

“Are you okay?”

“Better.” She nodded, shifting the fingers still at the back of his neck through his hair before tucking part of it behind one of his ears and finding the whispers of her visions were no longer vibrating at the back of her head or just behind her eyes and she could focus on him instead of trying to do anything but see them darting around the room.

He kissed her forehead and stayed there, taking a deep breath of that faint hibiscus scent she always had.

“How was your walk?”

“Good.” He nodded against her, smiling a touch when he thought of Ginger’s commentary. “My sister thinks I’ve changed.” Gust said suddenly as he scooped Liz into his arms and stood up, moving for the other room.

“Oh?”

“Mm-hm.” He put Liz down on the bed and turned away to shuck his blazer from his shoulders even as she shifted around to lay on her side, prop her head up with a hand and watch him move over to the closet to hang it up. He loosened his tie and continued disrobing as he spoke.

“Apparently me knowing what people like is unexpected.”

“I think gift-giving itself might be what’s unexpected.” Liz raised an eyebrow at him, fully aware of the bonsai and later the painting he had taken over to his father’s house.

“Perhaps.” Gust glanced at her as he unbuttoned his shirt. “I’ve similarly been told of the unexpected nature that is my cracking a joke.” Pulling the tie free from his neck, he discarded it along with the shirt as he stripped the tank beneath it over his head and went to take off his pants and everything else in a way that would eventually leave him blithely naked when he would move towards the bed in a moment. “Can you imagine?”

“Certainly not.”

“It’s preposterous.” 

“I completely agree.”

“Like I don’t have a sense of humor.” 

“The very idea of _you_ telling a joke is ridiculous.”

Gust turned to look at her, and while her expression seemed serious he narrowed his eyes at the twinkle he found in hers as he started for the bedside.

“You don’t think I’m funny?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“I seemed to remember you laughing at a joke or two of mine.” He climbed over her and Liz rolled onto her back, Gust staring down into her face as she ran her hands up his chest to curl around his shoulders.

“Laughing? Definitely not. Just had a piece of bread caught in my throat.” Her gaze left him to watch her palms as she smoothed them back and forth along his skin.

“Is that so?” One of his hands shifted part of the button-up she wore aside and found the scar along her abdomen. He ran his fingers over the irregular skin as he bent his head down and softly nipped at the side of her neck, moving the fabric away with his nose as he trailed kisses farther across her collar bone.

“Mm.” She agreed, nodding a little even as her head shifted to the side and let him continue, “You are many things, but a comedian is certainly _not_ one of them.”

This time Liz let out a noise as he bit harder just above her shoulder in retaliation.

“I’m not funny?” His breath moved over her skin as he watched her from the corner of his eye, her mouth slightly open and lids nearly closed as the fingertips he had at her side started to make trails lower down her hips.

The hands at his shoulders twitched as part of his hair brushed across her skin and somewhere he wondered what she might do with them if she wasn’t quite so cautious with him and the direction of his questions changed.

“What do you want?”

Liz could feel his lips brush against her shoulder, warm air from them spreading over her shoulder and sending a fine chill down her arm.

Too many things passed through her thoughts at his question and most of them seemed unfair seeing as how the last thing she wanted to do was push him into something with which he might not be ready to comply.

As he trailed kisses back across her shoulder to her neck and then began planting them under her jaw, Liz opened her eyes as his weight shifted and she watched as one of his hands moved up to cover hers near the place where his neck met with his shoulders.

“What are you wanting to do?” He murmured again, threading his fingers from over the top through hers and gently squeezing at them.

She laughed a little when she realized what he meant, that he must have noticed her flinching a moment ago.

“I-I thought I wanted to pull you down on top of me, but you kept kissing me and I didn’t want you to stop.”

Gust immediately let go of her hand to push away the fabric of the shirt she wore and lowered himself skin-to-skin with her, Liz’s arms circling around his back as his chest pressed into hers and grinning as he rested his weight against her but did not stop planting kisses wherever he could reach.

As he shifted up to get to her neck, he felt her next breath catch in her throat and it gave him pause enough before he got there to realize her thighs had ended up on the outside of his hips and _oh-_

He let out a silently strained breath as he closed his eyes and could almost feel himself pulsing, moving, against her, against the apex of her thighs which sent further waves of desire coursing through him as Liz shifting beneath him brought his already hyper-focused attention on that part of them confirmation that she _was_ in fact _quite_ wet already.

Liz could feel the slow trickle of Gust’s breath across the side of her neck, the bed’s covers beneath them becoming clenched between fingers turning to fists desperately fighting not to move even as her hips twitched again and each one hurried to say something and ended up speaking at the same time.

“Gust-”

“I-”

They both stopped and frankly Gust wanted nothing more than to pierce into her in a way he had only done with his fingers and tongue up to this point.

He could feel her trying not to move beneath him, but even the slight rise and fall of her breathing made the soft mounds of her chest moving against him begin to drive him out of his mind for her like it hadn’t ever done before.

Personally, he’d never been very far with her.

Done things to her?

Yes.

She’d never actually gone to touch him below the waist, and he couldn’t blame her for that, no matter how much he found he wished she would of late. And any ‘issue’ he had while pleasuring her he would either grimace through the unresolved pain where she couldn’t see or otherwise slip from her once she slept to take care of himself.

They never talked about it, though he was sure she guessed, and because of his own uncertainty as to his actual reaction to any of it, he never asked her for more, finding whatever boundaries they had slowly approached in regards to him to be taken at a pace at which he never would have complained.

That did not mean, however, he hadn’t been awakened over this past week by at least a dream or two of her lovely mouth, if not something else, wrapped around him, and never once since they’d started this whole endeavour had anything warped into echoes of the nightmares that used to haunt him in Atara save for that one time they’d succinctly resolved together.

“Liz. I..._really_ want to try.” He managed to choke out, his muscles wound tightly over her as his throbbing against her grew more insistent. “Is...that okay?”

Just the thought of it nearly made her response turn into a groan of acceptance, but in an effort to reassure him, she said, firstly, “Can I run my hands up your sides?”

A somewhat curt nod and she slowly let go of the bedspread to place her palms against his waist and methodically ran them up to the middle of his ribs and turned to look at his face, seeing now the strain stretched tightly across his brow above closed eyes and the clenched set of his jaw.

Her touch...he tried not to flinch, to send the wrong message, but...he felt himself quiver...and-

...her touch might set him ablaze...

The extra pressure of those palms on either side of him and he opened his eyes to see her staring at him with a solemn expression that somehow felt comical to the man all but ready to snap under the pressure of how much he wanted nothing more than to feel-

“It would be _more_ than okay, Gust. I...I-” He watched her swallow and wondered if the gravity of her expression was due to her own sort of restraint, especially with the strange hitch in her next, unsteady breath. “...but you...you stop the moment you need to, okay? Promise me?”

Definitely her own sort of restraint, if he couldn’t tell by the way she had suddenly all but frozen underneath him, and her response had him suddenly overcome by a tightness to his chest unrelated to the present circumstance that he had felt when interacting with her before.

_I love you._

He could hardly whisper it as he leaned closer to press his lips to her cheek, “I promise.”

She nodded, then, and as she stared back up at the ceiling realized she definitely didn’t know what to do with her hands and almost laughed about it. “You...you just tell me what you want me to do, okay?”

His lips had moved from her cheek to her jaw, from there her neck, to just below her ear in a series of slow, gentle biting kisses and, knowing exactly what might bring her back to something they could both work with, articulated into her ear:

“I want you. To fuck me.”

Liz let out a groan as he sucked her earlobe into his mouth to toy at it with his tongue, “You’re so not funny-_ah.”_

As he bit down on her neck this time, he leaned to the side just far enough to let one of his hands snake between them and begin kneading at her breast, this time giving into the urge to grind his hips against her and feeling her writhe satisfyingly beneath him and make another noise.

This?

This was not so bad, he thought, as he did so a second time and got a similar response.

“I thought we moved _past_ that, my dear.” He said between trailing kisses as he started to prop himself up while dragging his lips and teeth lower on her body.

“Moved past...what?”

“The fact that I’m hilarious and you just won’t admit it.”

He watched the edges of her lips tilt upwards, whatever she’d been about to say punctuated by another intentional movement of him against her as well as his mouth finally reaching the nipple he wasn’t already gently tugging at and pulling it into his mouth.

This time he felt her thighs squeeze into him and having moved himself lower down on her body, the tilt of her pelvis meant he could feel the core of her heat against his waist.

“I didn’t catch that.” He teased as he licked at the areola beneath him glistening now and watched his hand knead at her other breast again before leaving it, firmly pressing into her muscles down her front, brushing lightly below her stomach as he lifted himself further away from her.

“If I move past it, you might stop.” She told him with that same cheeky almost-smile he’d interrupted before.

“Oh, I _won’t_ stop.” He told her, voice lower than before as his hand at her stomach sought out the slickness he’d been preparing of her and began teasing at it, of half a mind to chase her climax right then and there.

“Please don’t-” She pleaded and he paused as she keened at him.

“Don’t what?” He raised an eyebrow at her as her eyes opened questioningly.

_“Stop.”_ She reiterated quickly, “Please don’t stop.”

His lips twitched--“Just checking.”--and he plunged a couple fingers inside of her to the tune of his name moaning out of her as her back arched and her hips rolled against him.

Gust couldn’t seem to set his eyes on just one part of her as he continued: her face beautifically contorted with the pleasure he was stirring in her, the mouth starting to release building cries, her breasts bouncing slightly with his efforts. Even her hands caught his attention once: clutching at the bedspread almost desperately in a way that made him wonder again where she would actually have them if she could think straight to choose. 

He really _really_ wanted to get at least one orgasm out of her just for the hell of it, but his own throbbing was growing exponentially more insistent at the consistent reminder that _he_ could be the one plunging into her for once and if he didn’t do it soon, the stiffness was going to start becoming a problem.

And it didn’t help that here propped up next to her he could see his fingers moving in and out of her and-

This was his and he wanted it to be his and if he didn’t make it his _now_, he was going to go out of his mind.

All Liz knew was he had suddenly pulled his fingers completely out of her and she blinked from behind the growing heat in her belly and the fire in the rest of her veins to suddenly let out a noise somewhere on the spectrum of _want_ as she watched Gust, now kneeling on the bed between her knees, start to learn over her and take a hold of his cock in one hand and grab the underside of her thigh in the other as if she needed encouragement to give him room, even in the midst of the flush of desire prominent all the way across his fair skin glancing at her face and then Liz completely lost sight of anything going on around her to the sensations as he slid home.

Gust hadn’t wanted to hurt her. Thankfully, she was already so wet, lining himself up as he leaned over her hadn’t been an issue, and neither had his initial thrusts, shallow and unpracticed, seemed to garner any other reaction except the sorts of breath-catching that this time accompanied sounds he’d never heard her make before.

Ones he similarly echoed once he’d been completely buried in those snug, soft depths he’d only dreamed of up to now. 

While Gust’s plan at first had been a nice, easy pace of smooth, steady, gliding movements, any such ideas he had of exactly what would happen began to give way to this new rhythm of their bodies moving together, bits of other information occasionally seeping into his awareness like the skating of her breasts against his chest and how they continued to exchange heated, breathless kisses. 

In the midst of the interweaving of their soft grunts and groans, each one all but completely taken by the feeling of the other, Liz found Gust’s lips near her ear and heard him begin to murmur his love for her even as she clutched at his back a little tighter and realized she’d started returning his sentiments.

Liz could not have said how long it took the pleasures spreading through her to reach their peak, only that it was after a moment where Gust had lifted one of her legs and had it flush against his chest to the one side of his neck over his shoulder before leaning back over her that her muscles began tightening around his length to clutch at it spasmodically, his own thrusts turning into quick jerks as he coated her inner flesh in a somewhat soothing nature.

As their movements slowed, Gust could feel his breath moving across her neck where he’d been kissing at her, Liz’s hands making soothing paths over his skin, whatever she could reach, still too breathless herself to speak, and only wrapping her arms around his neck as he finally shifted his arm away from her leg to free it and actually collapsed more fully on top of her as she lowered it back down.

One of Liz’s hands shifted up to his head and began gently massaging his scalp as she turned to press her lips to his forehead and then kept them there, Gust responding with a kiss of his own to her neck, not particularly caring about the sweat mingling between them where they touched.

“I love you.” He murmured into her ear, wanting to reinforce his earlier admission. Spoken in the midst of their heated passion or no, he _meant_ it with every fiber of his being and he had a sudden need for her to understand that while the abrupt confession had not been planned on his part, it was true nonetheless.

Liz blinked and paused, swallowing after a moment and still floating in the clouds of what had just occurred between them, genuinely surprised to hear him say it _again_ and wondering if, like her, it was a phrase he’d thought to himself long before speaking it.

Her arms wrapped around his neck as she held him close to her, the two of them catching their breath together.

She had liked him for a long time. Been drawn to him. Wanted his friendship. And she would have been perfectly happy with just that, somewhere unable to quantify his having any other interest in her, or perhaps unwilling--just as she had been with Arlo--to put anyone in a position that might make them uncomfortable being around her and so chose to never entertain thoughts otherwise.

And his friendship had been more than enough for her.

And it was that firmly rooted foundation, their already having practiced being in a relationship, that seemed to make the mutual shift to more so much easier.

Gust didn’t expect her to say it back.

She didn’t have to. 

Like his gifts to Russo and his father, he knew sometimes saying this sort of thing aloud meant very little in comparison to nightly walking his sister to the riverside or backing off the instant you realized something you did triggered bad memories for someone.

There was more than one way to express it and even as he felt her curl an embrace of her own around his neck just those three little words somehow didn’t do justice to the depth of his feelings for her.

“Gust, you mean so much to me.” She murmured and as she started to shift to lay on her side to face him, he mirrored her, blinking his eyes open and feeling his breath catch in his throat as she stared back at him with those gorgeous eyes, moving a strand of hair stuck to his shoulder back behind it as their legs tangled together on some unspoken queue as they settled. “I wish I knew of some other way to say it, because it doesn’t seem like enough.”

Amusement tugged at the edges of his lips, though she only found an understanding kindness in his gaze even as he teased, “So you’re unwilling to admit it, then?”

She felt her neck flush suddenly, but replied with a hint of defiance, “I love you, art-boy. I’ve loved you for a long time.” She huffed out a breath and finally glanced away from him, “But the feelings I had for you when I brought you your favorite dish that first time are nowhere near the same as now. Yet I don’t have another word for it.”

Gust lifted the arm that had come to rest over her and brushed his fingertips against her cheek, resisting his immediate urge to lean down and gently press his lips against her own.

“I know what you mean.” He murmured between them as he started to follow through with his intention and shifted closer, “But it’ll do.”

The two fell silent for several seconds, awash in swirling thoughts but eventually exchanging delicate kisses coupled with continuing affirmations of the confessions they’d just made to one another.

He was tired, but his mind ran away with him at too quick a pace to genuinely fall asleep even when his heavy eyes closed after a time, Gust and Liz both almost sinking further into the mattress beneath them if it were possible.

Glancing down at her when she moved and seeing her lift a hand to scratch at the side of her face, Gust squeezed his arms around her a little and mumbled, “I thought you’d fallen asleep.”

She shook her head.

Even exhausted from the earlier nightmares and now by Gust’s love-making, Liz hadn’t quite been able to manage it even after the two of them snuggled closer like they both meant to.

His next breath ruffled bits of her hair where his nose was buried against the top of her head and she made a curious noise at him, asking for the reason for his sighing without so many words.

“I-” Another sigh. “I’ve never told you...what happened...”

She shook her head and mumbled back, “I’ doesn’ matter.”

He let out another huff and closed his eyes again, knowing she would hear him out if he wanted, but never ask about it if he needed.

“I left Portia after Ginger was born. Mom died. I didn’t think there was anything for me here. I couldn’t stand the sight of my sister. She made me angry. And nothing my father could do or say would change my mind. I...was young. But spiteful. It can be the best motivator, if not the kindest. He should have kicked me out on my ass and I’ll never understand why he didn’t. Instead, he just let me go. Found the acceptance letter to the school in Atara I applied to that I thought I’d hidden and...didn’t argue. Even...funded it. Maybe he thought it would be good for me. He still doesn’t have any idea the mess I was those first few years. I think...I wanted to do everything in my power to be everything he tried to caution me against. I would get _so_ drunk, slept with _so_ many. And rode the privilege of being the son of a Mayor. They never once threatened to kick me out of the school. If I was anything, it was _good_ and they knew it. And I knew it. So they’d look the other way. Met Albert at one of those parties. We eventually roomed together after that, knowing the other wouldn’t give two shits about how they acted or what they did so long as the other didn’t interfere. It seemed like Master Vera attracted my type. When I entered into the advanced program--on track as her apprentice--her top student and many of the upperclassmen were people I’d seen at those parties, though they were doing much harder stuff than I ever did. We clashed, though. That student and I. Too similar to get along. Both very good and very aware of it. Butted heads too many times to count. The issue was...I was just as good as she, and she’d been at it for longer. That...proved problematic and I was too caught up in myself to see it. I... I didn’t even suspect a thing when I suddenly found myself running around with that inner circle of upperclassmen. Albert tried to warn me, the poor fool. I thought it was because I was just as good as them. He’s the one that found me after-”

At his suddenly taken in a shuddering breath, Liz hugged him tighter, “Gust, it’s okay, you don’t have to-”

“No, I-” He didn’t realize he’d begun shaking a little, “-It was at a party and, they’d never passed me anything before, so I thought this was finally it, I had finally found where I belonged and of course they would accept me, I was good and why shouldn’t they, but I had no idea they’d been plotting and I couldn’t see it that way. I was too drunk to suspect- Whatever they gave me, I lost control, couldn’t move, get my arms or legs to work, but I could see- and I could feel and-” The laughter. The voices. The taunting. Being trapped and at their mercy and held down by his shirt as _she_ did the deed, because of _course_ she would, of _course_ she did, because he needed to be put in his place and she couldn’t stand to see him getting everything he didn’t deserve or that fucking haughty expression he always wore-

_“And you think you’re better than us don’t you?” She stuck her nose to his, her hands pining him to the floor by his shirt and pulling tight across his arms, his shoulders, until he couldn’t feel his fingers any longer, but he couldn’t move them anyway-_

_He heard every sound she made, every equally awful remark of those around them as she rode him out, feeling absolutely betrayed by his own body, unable to control any of his reactions to the already grossly moist flesh he found himself surrounded by-_

_“Mm- Well- Ah- At least- You’re good for- Something- Dumbass-” _

“-Albert found me. I don’t know how. They just...left me there. Shoved me to the side and kept partying-”

His story had been intermittent, interrupted by choking sobs as he described what had happened, what had been said, and he didn’t even notice Liz reached behind her for the bedcovers and wrapped the half they weren’t laying on around the two of them, lovingly pushing his strawberry-blonde hair out of his tear-stained face and sometimes crying with him.

“-by the time most of them passed out, the rest had forgotten about me and I found I could move again, so I ran and Albert found me in the alley and took me back to our place. Didn’t even ask what happened, but I think he knew.” A gulp of air helped to steady him this time and for a moment he just held her before he went on more quietly.

“...the rumor was I’d...”

“No,” Liz breathed, unable to help it as she all but guessed what Gust meant to say.

“That I’d raped her. I’d lost track of my shoes and socks at the time and I guess she tried to use them as proof or something. When I went back to class, it was to all these accusatory eyes and that just meant I had even less reason to talk about it. Like they’d been planning this the whole time so I couldn’t- But I was already so embarrassed that it- and- Master Vera-” Another breath, “She called me into her office and I could hardly look at her. She didn’t ask me about it.” Gust gave the closest thing to laugh he was likely to get right now, “Just told me she knew this student was a lying bitch and she didn’t believe her and if I decided to quit now, she’d never forgive me. I was too ashamed of what had happened to go home anyway. So I stayed. Avoided everyone. Shut down even more than I did after mom died. Anything that wasn’t already grey suddenly- Master Vera even made special amends for me and my apprenticeship and luckily the rumor didn’t get far enough to go on any actual record.” He let out a breath. 

“Albert...towards the end of our programs he got a telegram. He’d cleaned up his act just about as much as I had by that point, if for two very different reasons.” Another huff of amusement, “He still ran around, but at least he was looking for love, I guess. His folks had moved to Portia? While we were in school. The rural area. He’d never been. That summer it was so dry. There was an awful fire that took their house, everything they had-”

Liz suddenly remembered Arlo having said something to her once about that. He’d had a nightmare of his own...

_“Just gotta be careful with fire in the rural area when it’s dry. I don’t wish to watch everything burn again. It was horrible.”_

“It wasn’t until then that I’d really given much of a thought for home, but I suddenly realized I missed it. Or parts of it. Mostly the part of it where no one would look at me sideways because of a lie they’d heard. Where the only ‘me’ they knew was the one from before I left. It didn’t take much to get Albert onboard with my idea for our next step after graduation. And the near loss of his family made me realize what I could have lost with mine. Changed my perspective. And learning about Ginger’s illness...that was just the nail in the coffin for my coming back to help take care of them all.”

Gust nearly yawned, suddenly emotionally drained having reached what was in all honesty well-past the original end of his tale and Liz could feel it in the way he sort of slumped further into her embrace. 

“I’m glad you told me, love.” She murmured, nuzzling her face against his, “You didn’t have to. But I’m glad you did.”

He smiled sleepily, returning her affection though his eyes were already closed.

“I...wanted to...you...deserve to know why- ...and you mean so much to me, and-” He smiled again, knowing this time he felt confident enough to say it out loud:

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's recently been an announcement for the next "My Time At" game and I am, of course, SUPER curious as to what it might be about and if it will at all be connected to Portia. On the other hand, I haven't played the game since the first half of this year, which means I'm missing out on all of the new content they've added recently, eheh ^__^;;


	33. Gust: Later That Night (Rated: E)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Gust speaks passionately...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is rated E for Explicit Sexual Content.
> 
> Whoops, I didn't exactly mean for this fic to turn super smutty but HERE WE ARE lol the last four of the five chapters are Rated E. It's not that I don't love Arlo (he DOES have three smutty chapters of his own, after all hehe) but there's lots of Arlo love on AO3, so I'm okay with Gust having a little extra in my story tbh
> 
> For those waiting on Arlo, he will in fact be back next chapter!~

It had been about Elizabeth, at first. The dream.

Her hair all spread out across the pillow like the perfect halo framing her gorgeous face, expression halfway between oblivion and release, and he could _feel_ her build up as if it was his own, a quivering of muscles starting somewhere near her core.

And he wasn’t sure how it happened, but the scene went sideways as quickly as a hand no longer hers reaching up for the hair at the back of his neck, which was shorter like he used to wear it when he first went to school, and suddenly it wasn’t Liz anymore, but a face he’d tried so desperately to forget and the violent tug jerked his chin upwards and _he_ was in _her_ place with the cold floor beneath his back and he couldn’t move any longer, except he was moving in every way that he didn’t _want_ to and she was calling his name and-

Gust ripped his eyes open into the darkness of the room, the powerlessness of the nightmare still making his heart pulse anxiously against his ribcage like it might burst free at any moment and Liz was there, hovering over his face as he blinked back frantic tears of frustration and horror.

Liz hadn’t touched him yet. Awoken by the combined change of energy in the room and the restlessness of the body next to her--the two of them no longer entangled together like they had started their sleep following their first love-making a few hours earlier--Liz had her hands stretched in Gust’s direction like she meant to do something with them, but opted for calling his name instead, thankful when he seemed to stir closer to the surface of sleep and intending to ask him what the best way she could respond in the future might be until she saw the tears gathering at the edges of his eyes and her heart sank further inside her chest in sorrow for him as he reached for her.

Taking ahold of her hands and pulling them towards his cheeks, Gust left her palms there as he rolled her direction and wrapped his arms behind her, taking her with him onto their sides while he sobbed and held her to him. 

“I’m here. Whatever you need...” She said, holding his face as his hands started shifting over her warm, comforting skin, trying to immerse himself in as many distracting points of contact as he could manage in an effort to leave the terror behind.

When he nudged at her face and tried to kiss her, their lips found one another for a moment before he hitched with another sob and she started kissing at him instead, cheeks and lips and nose and brow without pause except for the, “Is this okay?” And continuing when he gave the best nod he could manage.

“Gust, I’m so sorry...” Liz murmured between them once his breathing had mostly settled, moving bits of his hair out of his face.

He shook his head and pressed the tip of his nose to hers, trying to get a steady enough breath to be able to speak.

“Talking about it...it was...I’m glad for someone to know.” He finally told her, “I didn’t think it all would- But that’s okay.”

He didn’t exactly care for the sad smile on her face as she continued tucking bits of his strawberry-blonde hair behind his ears and shoulder.

“It wasn’t always this long.” Gust murmured after watching her for a moment. “I kept it long for mother and chopped it off when I left for Atara.”

Liz frowned with interest as she tried to imagine him with it any shorter, “I like it.”

He nodded agreement, “It helped me- When I embraced it, I felt like someone different. The me before. Not the person who’d been-” He blinked and as he realized the lump in his throat was returning he knew he didn’t have to say it for her anyway. She knew what he meant. He let out a breath.

“I was a mess. I grew my hair out again, but this time I hid behind it.” Gust chuckled a little, “Can’t grow facial hair to save my life, but I would have done that too if I could have.”

Now Liz’s smile was more what he’d hoped to see and he found it lifted his own spirits as well.

“I had always noticed people looking at me, even when mother and I would travel. Saying things like ‘pretty’ when I was a child. But I quickly realized how to capitalize on those looks once I left home. In all the ways I thought my father wouldn’t want me to.”

Liz had once noted to herself something about his winning smile and felt especially unsurprised to learn he knew of its profitability.

“I couldn’t make...any connection with them, though. I’d never learned how. And I...thought most of them beneath me anyway. I didn’t exactly...endear myself to any of them, that’s for sure. But if someone wanted a warm body, I certainly had one.”

“You do indeed.”

He blinked at Liz’s pointed grin and she was surprised to see him break gaze with her and huff out something of amusement behind the slight blush settling beneath the freckles across his nose even as he gathered her up closer in his arms and she tucked her head beneath his chin quite satisfactorily.

“Where I could have had my pick of them before, after the incident, I didn’t want any of them looking at me. Or maybe that self-disgust I had began to reflect in my image, if I looked as gross as I felt they wouldn’t look at me and I would fulfill my own perceptions.”

The breath puffing past his lips this time stirred the hair at her head where he’d buried his nose against her.

“Coming home helped me refine my image. None of the people here knew. None of them would have to know. And if I looked the part of mayor’s son, something like what they had known before I left, none of them would have anything to guess at.”

“That’s when you started braiding it. To keep it out of your face.”

He nodded, “Mother...used to do that for me when I was younger. And if I threw myself into my work, I wouldn’t have to talk to anyone. And I didn’t. Until you came along.” He poked her in the side and got a laugh in response.

“You seemed so...” How would she put it... “Barren. For someone who could create such beautiful linework, you walked around looking so bored all the time. I was curious. There had to be more.”

Barren.

That had been the word Master Vera used. 

_“All those looks and not an ounce of creativity to spare.”_

She wasn’t exactly one to mince words and had always been the one to grade his work the most harshly, despite the other professors heaping their praises on whatever half-assed item he submitted to them.

She always seemed to know.

_“Your linework is terrible. You did this, what, ten minutes before class?”_

It was usually twenty, but still.

And he had hardly spent any time practicing the skill, riding on his talent.

Until it was all he could do to keep the trauma at bay.

“I don’t know what you saw in me.” He told Liz, just like he’d told Master Vera all those years ago as he graduated. “I’m not particularly tactful or especially kind. And if I recall correctly, I was a complete ass when we first met.”

“You were kind... ...of an ass.” Liz agreed and Gust made a face as he felt her shoulders shake a little with her joke.

“Uh huh. I suppose I deserved that.” Was his wry reply, an eyebrow rising momentarily on his face. She nodded agreement into his chest where she rested her cheek. “What I’m still not certain of is what exactly I did to deserve _you.”_

Liz pulled away from him to look up into his face, her brows meeting together as if she couldn’t make sense of the statement and she shook her head a little.

“I mean, I’m not any great thing.”

“Excuse me?” His eyebrows rose higher on his face in a mild sort of astonishment.

“I mean, you’ve been with plenty of people, I’m sure I don’t measure up to-”

“I never had a _connection_ with any of _them_, Elizabeth.”

Oh boy. There was that name thing again.

Why did it always make her feel so pleasantly uncomfortable?

Maybe it had something to do with the look he always gave her when he said it.

“I never _wanted_ to know more about them. Or felt they were remotely worth my time. Or effort. _They_ never challenged me, except for Master Vera and that’s an entirely different circumstance to begin with. _They_ never made me question my own motives and actions.”

“I’m...sorry...” Liz blinked up at him.

He stuck his face closer to hers, “And they sure as hell never apologized to me when they thought they might have done something wrong.”

Liz found she’d completely run out of things to say in the face of that stare he’d leveled on her.

“How long have you thought such things?” He searched her gaze. “About not being worth anyone’s time?”

Absolutely taken aback by the intensity of his jeweled expression, Liz only blinked at him, mouth open without the words to respond as his stare seemed to leave her throat unable to comply with her thoughts.

How was she supposed to tell him ‘forever’ when he was all but glaring at her?

After a beat or two of her stunned silence, Gust went on, finding that in this instance he most certainly had the words for someone so full of worth and yet so unable to see their own merits.

“Perhaps I’ve yet to speak as passionately with you or promise you anything as I ought, but-” If she hadn’t already been married, he would have proposed to her right then and there.

He felt without doubt he’d never find another woman like this one.

His hand found her cheek and he held it tenderly as his eyes suddenly flashed with inspiration as to what exactly she meant to him, “Elizabeth, your presence pierced through clouds of melancholy that I hadn’t even realized were still hanging over me, I’d been ignoring them for so long. Anyone I’ve ever been with never brought me any sunshine, left me in a colorless world, until you. And I didn’t even _know_ the sort of light missing from my life until I looked into your eyes. It isn’t even that you complete me, it’s that you suddenly make me feel _whole_ again. Like I can do anything and go anywhere just because you’ll let me be beside you without expectation. You give me room to be _me_. And to discover who that even _is._

“I love you.

“And I hold you in _highest_ regard-”

Now he was just being ridiculous, “Gust-”

“You are one of the kindest-”

“Gust-”

“-most selfless-”

“Gust!”

“-hard-working-”

“I-”

“-increasingly infuriating-”

This time she just kissed him, slipping her hands up between them to pull his face closer as she leaned forward, meeting with no resistance on his part, but able to sense the mix of playful ire at how she wouldn’t let him finish in the way the furrow between his brows deepened and his lips twitched against hers trying not to smile as his eyelids slid closed. And somehow in the way that one of his hands slid down her back to squeeze at her rear as his other arm held her more tightly to him.

Because if she wasn’t going to let him _tell_ her, then, dammit, maybe he could _show_ her that she deserved all of the best in life that he could give her. 

And just as Liz finally thought of something to say in response and meant to part with him, all other thoughts suddenly flew out of her mind as Gust’s tongue made a move past her lips and set the hair at the back of her neck standing on end at the intensity with which he sought out hers to caress alongside it, not hardly noticing how he rolled the two of them over until he had her beneath him again and she felt one of his hands move from her throat down around the outside curve of her breast to follow the line of her side to waist and hip and thigh.

Some brief notion that perhaps she _liked_ being surprised passed over Gust’s mind for later consideration when she shifted her leg outwards as his fingers turned to stroke to the inside towards a warmth he found was already slick again.

He felt her moan against him when he ran fingers up between those folds, starting to explore every inch of them as he spread their juices ever further and the first time he teased her entrance with the barest tip of one such finger, he found himself with _her_ tongue in his mouth--not that he was complaining--and continued feeling her noises hum against him as he gently moved the digit further inside of her.

Fairly certain her earlier protests had been silenced for the moment, this time when the pair of them paused from the kisses for air, a smile twitched across Gust’s mouth as Liz breathed his name and clutched at his neck while his lower attentions pursued her slowly building cries.

When everything about him suddenly left her, Liz’s eyes flew open and widened as she watched him kiss at her inner thigh once, and then lost focus when Gust’s tongue lazily stroked upwards from the back of her entrance all the way up to the already swollen nub which he flicked twice with the tip of it before she felt the pad of his finger start to explore her further.

Gust softly licked his way all around her entrance and wherever he felt her hips twitch in response or heard her keen at him, he would lap his tongue there several times, enjoying not only the taste of her, but knowing how to pull such sweet noises from her mouth as he intermittently suckled and then started to pierce further and further inside.

One of his hands slipped beneath her bottom to shift the angle of her hips upwards and Gust watched first one finger and then two penetrate beyond where his tongue could reach before looking up to see her all but writhing with pleasure beneath him as he worked steadily, sometimes ducking his head to tease at her clit with his tongue just to feel her quiver and cry out and beg him to do more.

She was just so wet and he could _feel_ her clenching her muscles around his intruding fingers as if reminding him what she would be doing to _him_ if he let her and he worked at her faster, also stimulating the nub at the top of her entrance until she let out a final rising cry and jerked around him even as he slowly pulled his fingers out and earned one last low moan as he left her.

Liz lay breathing heavily as the stars in her eyes cleared and she blinked back to the bedroom around them and her lover she caught looking exceedingly pleased with himself and who ducked his head between her thighs again and made her eyes roll back as she breathlessly pleaded with him while he set about methodically tasting as much of her as he could. 

When her hips threatened to tear her away from him before he was done, Liz felt his hands press firmly into them and hold her down as he kept moving his tongue and intermittently sucking at places that tore sounds of enjoyment from her lips. 

Her second orgasm quickly followed the first he had coaxed from her and she clutched at the sheets under her as her back arched and his name came flying out of her lips more than once.

As she lay there in the midst of the roaring in her ears, she could feel him continue to lick at her as she came back down and found she could breathe again. 

“Gust...” She murmured, glancing down at what she could see of him.

She let out a sound as his tongue slipped inside her and moved about, his mouth coming up to meet with her as he hummed questioning against her and stimulated her further, nearly driving any thought she might have had completely out of her mind.

His name slipped out of her throat again in a groan.

“What was that, darling?”

“You...” It wasn’t a particularly serious threat, but it sounded like a half-hearted one anyway.

Gust kissed at her and then started to crawl up over her to look down at her face.

“What?”

His expression seemed innocent enough, but that didn’t mean Liz didn’t have her eyes narrowed at him as she pressed her lips together and she was tugging at the bed covers under one of his hands as she made as if to get beneath them.

“Just crawl under here and hold me, mm?”

Obliging with something of an indulgent smile, Gust followed after her with a bit of shuffling until he had her up against his chest like he had been earlier.

“Not that I think you’ll believe me, but if it’s any further proof how _deserving_ I find you, I hadn’t done such things as that before I met you.” He kissed at the top of her head, her cheek pressed warmly to his chest. “Never wanted to. My encounters prior were with a mutual pursuit of pleasure until a mutual climax of resolution and nothing more. And if one party or the other didn’t immediately leave afterwards, I can’t think of a single one where I took great satisfaction in holding them like this.” He let out the longest, most contented sigh and squeezed her tighter for a moment as she shifted one of her hands caught between them against his stomach, herself tired and also...very hesitant to even admit to herself that she wanted to do so many things back to him that she couldn’t grasp at them all with her sluggish mind.

“I...would do...anything you wanted, art-boy.” She mumbled.

Gust mimicked the soothing gesture she was making across his skin to her back.

“I know.” He went silent for several moments as if considering it. “Right now...I want you to get some sleep.”

Liz nodded and shifted closer to him as her breathing started to even out and Gust curled around her.


	34. Gust and Arlo: Later That Morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Arlo makes an appearance and a discussion is had...

“Hey, buddy!” Arlo whispered to the rather rotound pig who greeted him with curious snuffles when he slipped inside the door at a time almost too early for the sun, “Shh, shh, stay quiet, no, stop, my laces aren’t edible. Are you hungry? Let’s find something to eat, eh?”

When he glanced up to see the new doorway across from him, his eyes caught sight of the new fireplace as well and he briefly ducked his head into the new room with a bright gaze of pride at the addition, certain Gust had helped Liz draw up the plans for it and appreciating the place having a room for Liz to finally be able to display all of her relic-gathering hard work.

He also thought the triangular bricks for the fireplace were a nice touch.

QQ was still at his heels, though, and he quickly did an about face to leave the new room before the animal started grunting again, having caught sight of the two slumbering bodies in the bed of the room off to the left of the front door where he remembered it.

The kitchenette, too, hadn’t gone anywhere, and he scoured the cabinets as quietly as he could manage before he noticed the one in particular the pig kept nudging and swiftly retrieved the food therein to deposit into the bowl in the other room.

It wasn’t so much the noise of the cooking itself, but the scent of breakfast growing heavier on the air that started to draw Gust away from his sleep.

Granted, the conversation might have had something to do with it, too.

“No, no, QQ, you have to go away! You can’t see this! I’m sorry!” Arlo’s whispers were at a slightly more frantic volume as he continued to nudge at the pig who had come back around the corner with his foot, “Maybe this was a cousin or something! I can’t let you watch! I’d feel terrible.”

“Are you _always_ this loud in the mornings?” Gust wanted to know with a grumble as he finally sat up, bare-chested with the lower half of him still under the covers, to rub at his eyes as he watched Arlo attempt to push the pig away.

The bacon sizzling on the griddle snapped rather poignantly.

The redhead tossed a cheeky half-grin Gust’s direction the architect only raised an eyebrow over an otherwise no-nonsense expression at.

“Maybe. Maybe I wanted the chance to tell you to put some pants on before you got up to get any coffee.”

Gust only stared back at the other, expression otherwise blank as he realized he was not anywhere near as embarrassed or uncomfortable as he originally imagined himself to be if Arlo came back to find Gust naked in the other’s bed. Especially after having literally just had actual sex with the other’s wife for the very first time the previous night.

In fact...

“Why? So you could watch?”

He rather liked the way Arlo seemed to be completely taken off-guard by his inquiry, and while he didn’t care to look one way or the other to see if the former Captain _did_ watch or had any other specific reaction, Gust made little ceremony of throwing the covers back far enough to climb out from under them and moved first for the drawer where he’d stored the clothing that didn’t require hanging.

His ears twitched at the sound of Elizabeth stirring behind him, hearing her mumble his name as she likely sat up herself.

Eggs. Bacon. Coffee. ...batter?

But she would have sworn Gust had been right next to her just a second ago.

Bleary-eyed, she caught sight of him getting dressed and wondered herself at the time as she pushed hair out of her face.

“Hey, Lizzie.”

He didn’t say it very loudly.

He didn’t have to.

“Red?” Still afraid she was half-asleep, Liz scrambled out of the bed anyway and collided with his side after calling his name more confidently, leaving Arlo laughing at her and wrapping one arm around her since the other held his spatula.

He kissed the top of her head and as she turned her face upwards realized she hadn’t any clothing on except for one of those button-up shirts of Gust’s and he blinked at her now slightly confused expression instead of kissing her like they both assumed he would.

“Wow. You look great. You know. I never would have thought of that.” His thoughts bounced to the possibility of his favorite jacket around her shoulders as he-

“Of course not. Go sit with your wife or something.” Still bare-chested, but wearing his usual slacks, Gust relinquished the spatula from Arlo’s grasp just as the scene of Liz started to fade in his mind.

“Hey, _I_ was making breakfast in bed for you two.” He stole it back and gave Gust a mock-glare as he found himself being slowly shouldered out of the way, gripping Liz more tightly around the shoulders as he was forced to shuffle towards her.

“No, you were imagining what she’d look like in something of _yours._ And burning the bacon. Now, if you don’t kiss her, I _will.”_ Gust snatched the spatula again and gave Arlo a pointed look.

The adventurer glanced down at Gust’s bare arm and snorted, but began steering Liz into the other room, “I don’t suggest doing that without a shirt on.”

“I’m sure you don’t suggest a lot of things, Arlo. But it’s good to see you back anyway.”

“Can’t you play nice for two minutes?” Liz wanted to know as Arlo pulled her into his lap when he sat on the couch.

“He started it.”

“And I’ll finish it, too.”

“Gu-ust!” Liz intoned a little louder, “Can’t you play nice for two minutes?”

“No.”

Liz and Arlo found themselves grinning at one another and she reached up to push that bit of hair out of his face always hanging down across his eyes.

“I figured it’d be longer by now. And you’d be all scraggly.” She playfully scratched her fingers across one of his sideburns with a smile.

“Well, I suppose if I cut it and shaved and showered just for you and at no other time while I was gone, you wouldn’t really know, would you?” He narrowed his eyes a little, belying his own smile below it as he leaned forward and nudged at her nose with his own, which she crinkled in response.

“I think I’d be able to smell it all on your clothes anyway, mm?”

He stuck his nose in the air this time. “I _also_ washed my clothes. Just for my homecoming.”

“Is that so?”

“Mm-hm.”

“Did you seriously only travel with the one outfit?”

Arlo looked up at the blonde who was leaning against the side of the archway leading into the other room. “I thought you were cooking bacon.”

“I’ve finished.” Gust was also wearing a tank top now and ignored the look he was getting from Arlo about it. “And the pancakes will be done soon. How did you want your eggs?”

“I really was going to serve all that to you guys.”

Gust shrugged, and repeated his earlier sentiment, “I’ll finish it. But _you_ haven’t kissed her yet.”

“Why, do you want to watch?” Arlo’s eyes flashed somewhat wickedly at the other as he leaned forward, Liz’s cheeks turning pink as she noticed and her hand coming up to Arlo’s chest like she could keep him away.

Gust scoffed and pushed off from the archway to turn back to the other room. 

“Ar-_lo_!” Liz whispered, unaware Gust had turned away. 

He paused and blinked, aware of her hand pressing against him, and then pouted at her, “What, I can’t kiss you in front of people now?” He gestured with his chin towards the direction Gust had been. “Look, he’s gone anyway. Please?” He acted like he might lean forward again and found her relenting, and in fact quickly meeting his lips for a kiss as if she wanted to reassure him she wanted it. 

“This really is convenient,” He murmured between them, breaking just far enough away from her to speak and she could feel him start to grin at her again just as she felt his fingers slip beneath the open shirt and take her breast in hand to gently knead at it, pleased to feel her silent gasp of breath against his lips as her eyes fluttered a little and he heard her barely voice his name. 

He kissed her again, other hand ducking beneath the shirt to rest against her back and just as he felt her start to shift forward and raise an arm, Gust came back around the corner and they broke away from one another right as her hand found the side of Arlo’s neck. 

“You should eat before it gets cold.” He nodded at Liz and set down the plate as well as the mug of coffee he had in his other hand at the only table in the room, QQ on his heels. When he turned around to look down at the animal, Arlo spoke up as Liz left his lap.

“Don’t let him fool you. I fed him this morning.” The redhead had thrown an arm over the back of the couch to give the pig a wry look.

“Is that so?” Gust said to the animal as he stood with his hands on his hips and dispassionately watched the pig snuffle at his toes, an action usually indicative of his having forgotten to put something in the other’s bowl.

Meanwhile, Liz had slipped off into the other room and around the corner, feeling as if she were blushing pink all the way down her arms as she quickly shucked Gust’s button-up from around her shoulders and pulled on her usual outfit.

It wasn’t as if she was _surprised_ by Arlo’s interaction with her. Once they were married they were quite...active, as it were. And she hadn’t _seen_ him in what felt like forever, but why did she feel so weird about their first interaction immediately turning to what it did like she hadn’t just been satisfied, more than once, not too many hours ago? And that was _besides_ the fact Gust was here, too, which added an entirely different level of weird she had not been expecting.

_“I can’t kiss you in front of people, now?”_

He hadn’t _genuinely_ seemed hurt by it, but the phrase stuck out to her.

This was her _husband_ after all. One she always enjoyed kissing. And she _clearly_ had a physical attraction for him if it wasn’t obvious by the way she knew she needed to get other clothing on so she wouldn’t make a complete mess of herself. But she really did want to hear all about his travels and catch up and-

So then why couldn’t she stop thinking about getting her hands all over him? Is that the only reason she reached out to stop him at first, or was the pink tinge to her skin indicative more of their having been ‘caught’ doing it?

As she turned, she found a plate slipped into her hands and a gentle push at her back, “If you don’t go sit down, he’ll drink all your coffee too.”

She blinked over at Gust as her feet started to shuffle across the floor and she rejoined the rest of the room.

“-but if you’re not up for it, I’d completely understand.”

“Nah, I think that’d be great. I’ve got news I’m sure the Mayor would be keen on.” Arlo smiled up at Lizzie as she slid into the chair next to him, already halfway through his food as he shunted her coffee over to her with a wink.

She tilted her head at him a little as she reached for the beverage with a, “What?”

Gust’s hand appeared between them and he deftly released one of the two mugs of dark coffee curled in his fingers to Arlo’s left at the other’s nod of thanks before circling around him to the free place at the table and hooking an ankle to a nearby chair to pull it up for himself, his other hand full of his own serving of breakfast.

“Of course you both take it black.” Liz drly remarked, earning another wily grin from Arlo and the slightest glance from Gust in whose eyes she saw the reflection of a similar amusement as her husband. “What were you talking about?”

Knowing Gust had just taken a bite after the pause of silence and flicking his eyes in the other’s direction to see a shrug, Arlo spoke up first, “A certain someone might be interested in any storytelling I might be willing to share.”

“Is that so?” Liz smiled kindly over at Gust who nodded and finally cleared his mouth of food to give her the barest of smiles in return as he picked up the thread of conversation.

“She mentioned it in passing on one of our walks earlier in the season, which means she has likely been considering it ever since we found out Arlo wouldn’t be coming back from his exam. I’ll go speak with father about three guests for dinner this evening if...?” He left it open with a questioning look at her.

“Me, too?” 

“She’d be disappointed if you weren’t there as well.”

“I mean, _I’m_ not doing anything.” She looked at Arlo.

“I already told him I was free. I’ve only got a couple of days to stick around, but it’ll give me a chance to talk to the Mayor while I’m there, and to be perfectly honest there isn’t any other reason I’m home except that they gave me some time off between missions.”

Liz’s eyes lit up at the idea of what all he had been doing, “I’d ask, but maybe it’d be best to hear it all at once with Ginger.”

He grinned at her and gave a little shrug, “I’m sure it’s nothing worth hearing twice.”

She gave a friendly tap to the side of his arm with the back of her hand as he laughed and fended her off.

“The real trick will be trying to figure out what’s worth telling. I’ve mostly just been scouting out some new area and I doubt she’d be interested in my intrepid cartography skills.”

“Cartography?” Liz wanted to know.

Arlo spoke around the bite he had just taken, “As the new guy, the job gets shunted to me to make sure whatever we find ends up on the map. And as the new guy, everyone is constantly pestering me about how it’s wrong.” His eyes twinkled with his good-humor about it as he swallowed and spoke more clearly, “I don’t understand why _they_ don’t just do it themselves if they’re so particular.”

“I’m certain you’ll find a way of making it all sound fascinating.” Gust replied.

“I’ll try!”

For several bites, they ate in silence, and Liz got up to fetch herself more coffee, glancing at Arlo’s cup to have him pass a hand over it with his mouth full and shake his head kindly--it was over halfway full still--and then gesture towards Gust she would take his while she went.

The other passed it her direction and she blinked at the particular gleam in his eye after she glanced down to see his just as completely empty as her own and felt him steady a gaze on her that sent the sort of pleasant chill across the back of one arm as an understanding of his expression suddenly sunk over her.

He knew exactly why the both of _them_ were guzzling down the beverage, left to their own they likely would have slept several more hours, and Liz turned such a lovely shade of pink as she dropped her eyes and made an about-face to duck into the other room.

In truth, Gust felt just as mentally and emotionally exhausted as he did physically from the lack of sleep and it was the last thing he wanted to think or talk about, but he spoke up anyway once Liz sat back down after nodding thanks when she returned his mug full.

He made an attempt to sound as casual and distanced as he could manage, “We did not exactly discuss the precise terms at the time, but if the two of you would prefer I vacate the premises for the duration of your stay, I would oblige.”

Arlo and Liz exchanged glances as he went on, the pair of them realizing they hadn’t even talked to one another about how they felt, much less actually considered how they felt.

“The terms of our agreement were made in regards to-”

“That sounds so formal, Gust.” Liz crinkled her nose, _“Agreement.”_

“That’s what it was, is it not?” He rejoined mildly, glancing her direction.

“To be honest, I hadn’t given it much thought.” Arlo scratched at the side of his goatee and leaned his elbow forward on the table. “Where would you even go?”

“I am sure my father would find no issue in-”

“You haven’t talked to him.”

“You did only show up unannounced just this morning.”

“So you might not have anywhere else to be.”

Gust blinked at him, “I sincerely doubt-”

“Look, uh,” Arlo tossed a glance at Liz again as he dropped his hand to hang just off the table in front of him and she took up the gauntlet as she caught the look and turned to Gust.

“This is your _home.”_ She told him, Arlo nodding as she confirmed how he’d seen it almost as soon as Gust brought it up.

“You’ve lived here almost as long as I have.” He paused as if trying to think through the exact number and just gave up and smiled, “Maybe longer. It’s nothing to be ashamed of that I know of. You shouldn’t have to ask someone else for a place to stay. There’s plenty of room, unless you’ve downsized the bed while I was gone.” He cast his eyes over at the bed in the other room with a teasing look.

Gust blinked again, realizing his next comment would have been about bringing up how he could sleep on the couch and having it swept out from beneath him by the adventurer. 

His eyes shifted in Liz’s direction and she met his gaze with a calm nod and small smile of her own, though she added, “You _could_ sleep on the couch if you’re more comfortable with it, but don’t feel like you need to do so on our account.”

He didn’t rightly know if he could sleep very well if not next to her, but it wouldn’t have been for very many days and-

“Since that’s all settled, _I’m_ getting seconds.” Arlo announced, leaving his mug but taking the plate into the other room.

“Yes, I suppose it is, isn’t it.” Gust mumbled half to himself with something akin to surprise. “Had you already talked about this before?” His brows were furrowed.

Liz shook her head, “I-I mean, I stand by what I said. This is your home. If Arlo hadn’t considered it when he asked you at first, or wasn’t willing to work through anything like this that came up, I don’t think he would have presented it as an option to begin with. If you _want_ to leave, you can, but-” The idea didn’t sit right with her and it was obvious, “-but I’d just as soon you stayed. If that’s okay with you.”

“It...it’s more than okay.” He found himself saying, not realizing until it came out of his mouth how true it was and how it had settled several things in his mind he didn’t know were bothering him. “I- ...I’ve thought of this as home for a long time.” He admitted as he turned back down to his meal, though he thought perhaps it had to do more with _who_ was there and not the bricks of the building itself.


	35. Arlo: Before Dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Arlo and Liz talk...

Arlo reached out and wrapped his arms around Liz, pulling her tightly up next to his chest amidst the last fading echoes of their entanglement with a sigh of contentment as he kissed the side of her head and propped one arm underneath his head to look at the relics scattered around while she settled against the side of his body.

“I suppose that’s one way to christen a new room.” Liz told him as she started smoothing her hands over the musculature of his body, just as solid beneath her fingers as she remembered.

“You mean you and Gust hadn’t-”

“Ar-_lo!”_

“What?”

She looked up to give him a mock-glare as he tipped his head and revealed a teasing grin, “I guess it’s not _really_ any of my business.”

Liz gave him a little sigh, thinking about his earlier comment on the kissing in front of Gust, “Arlo, I’m sorry, this is all just so new to me and, really, I’d tell you anything you wanted to know. Just like with the heart knot.”

“I know, darling.” Another smooch to her hair, “I was just teasing you, really. We talked about this: whatever happens or doesn’t happen is between the two of you. I genuinely do not care either way. If he hurts you, I’d have a problem. If you need to tell me something, I’m here. But as far as I’m concerned, he’s a decent fellow and I don’t think you’d waste your time on anyone who wasn’t.”

“Yeah...” She smiled a bit. “Well, I like your way of christening in any case.”

He laughed.

Gust and QQ had left the premises not too long ago amid promises they would meet him at the Mayor’s residence promptly at seven o’clock for dinner and while Liz still wasn’t exactly sure how she felt about how quickly her and Arlo had devolved from any actual conversation to ending up naked in the newest addition to the house, there was something to be said about now being able to lay here in his warm arms and feel as if she could actually appreciate his return without the distraction of wanting him so badly.

“I missed you.”

Arlo blinked his eyes open where they’d fallen closed in the air of peace that had settled around them, barely catching the words murmured against his side.

He leaned his head over and planted a kiss in her hair, mumbling against her, “I missed you, too,” as he took in a breath filled with a scent he had all but forgotten. “How are you?”

The question gave her pause, like she hadn’t much considered herself of late.

The adjustment of living with Gust passed over her mind, of course. That was certainly different. And it wasn’t that she would assert she wasn’t ‘content’ with her lot in life, but as she thought about it, she felt as if the only things of note lately all had to do with Gust, the rest of the days blending together once the changes to the house had been made and she found that instead of an enjoyment of the mundanity of her existence, ever since Arlo had left, ever since things calmed down, everything else had started to feel kind of...bland.

Arlo noticed the hesitation and decided to speak up again, “Gotten any further into the Deepest Ruin?”

“Yeah! Uh, I actually reached the bottom.”

“Really?” He seemed excited for her.

She nodded against him, “Remind me to show you the weapons I found towards the last of it. And Sam found a treasure map! The clothing seems to be referencing an old folktale that goes along with the weapon from the bottom floor. It’s really made me wonder about how much of it is real...”

“There’s still so much we don’t know.”

“Yeah...”

“How’s the building going? I really do like this new part of the house.”

More pause, “It’s...going well.”

“Nothing to report?”

“Um, same old same old, really.” She smiled at him a little. “Nothing that compares to _your_ adventures, I’m sure.”

Arlo let out a small bark of laughter, “Yeah, well, that’s partly why I’m home for a bit. We ran into something a bit above the team’s paygrade. Or, at least, _mine,_ so some of the higher ups are looking into it and I get some time off in the meanwhile.”

“What did you do?” Liz asked half-jokingly.

“Hey, I resemble that remark,” He teased right back. “But I promise you it wasn’t me. Or...not _just_ me.”

“Mm-hm.” She was fighting a grin and trying to narrow her eyes accusatorily. “Why don’t I believe you?”

“I haven’t the faintest idea.” He was the paragon of innocence in that moment, “I’ve no reason to lie to you.”

“Hm.”

“I guess you’ll just have to wait to hear the story for yourself.”

“And how am I to know if you tell Ginger anything resembling the truth?”

He gave her another one of his patented grins, “You’ll just have to trust me, I guess.”


	36. Gust and Arlo: Dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Builder has dinner with Gust's family...

Arlo and Liz were greeted at the door by Russo and ushered inside with little pomp and circumstance, but much enthusiasm, especially for the usually more soft-spoken butler.

Ginger set aside her things and rose from her chair to give them hugs as Russo gestured they were welcome to sit down and apologized as he bustled himself off to the kitchen assuring them dinner would be ready within the hour amidst sweet and savory scents rolling throughout the room.

As the pair went to sit with Ginger, it seemed as if the Mayor was all but shoved out of the kitchen with a chortle, wiping at the side of his mouth in a way that suggested he might have been at the meal somewhat early.

“Arlo! Liz! It’s so wonderful to see you!” He moved in their direction and sat down in a chair nearby as Ginger reached for one of Liz’s hands to hold it between her own, eyes sparkling as she steered the other so that she might be sitting between Liz and Arlo.

“It _is_ lovely to see you. Both of you. It’s just not the same around here without Arlo, and-” She gave the hand a gentle squeeze that Liz returned with a smile, “- and I’m glad you dropped by. Gust-”

“Before you start drilling him, father: can I get anyone something to drink while I’m up?”

Arlo and Gale were already exchanging conversation on the other side of Ginger and Arlo threw an arm over the back of the couch behind her in time to turn behind him and see Gust moving into the room from the opening to the hall across from where Russo disappeared.

“I think an apéritif would be an excellent idea.” Gale replied, approvingly patting the tops of his thighs with his hands at the notion. “I think we have some pastis?” Gust nodded that they did as Gale looked around at the others. “If I recall, a dry sherry of some kind, gin, vermouth,” He appeared to be listing things as he remembered them off the top of his head.

“I would take some gin.” Arlo piped up.

“You know what I like.” Ginger smiled over her shoulder at him and got a second nod and she watched his eyes shift over to the back of Liz’s head as a certain gleam settled across his features.

“Elizabeth. Can I get you something?”

_Um._

The question seemed innocent enough. But it was something about the way he said it that sent the fine prickle moving across the back of her neck. Her name would have been enough to get her attention, but Liz somehow just _knew_ he was staring at her as well.

“Whatever Ginger is having.” She managed to reply, giving Gust’s sister a smile, but refusing to turn around and look at him.

Ginger watched Gust give another nod, the edge of his lip curling upwards a touch into an expression she wasn’t sure she’d ever seen him wear as he headed across the room for the kitchen and the door Russo disappeared into earlier.

He’d always been calm. Once he returned from Atara. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen him get stirred up over anything, though he rarely seemed to be paying enough attention to what was going on around him to have reason to.

Now, though, he also seemed at peace, even if Ginger still didn’t exactly have a name for the way he had looked at Liz just now. She would have to keep an eye on him tonight. She hadn’t actually seen the two of them interact much, though her sisterly intuition had clued her into Gust’s possible feelings a long time ago.

Liz was thankful when Ginger seemed to get distracted by Arlo, as if she knew the red-haired Portian had stories to tell. 

She wasn’t sure what exactly Ginger was going to say about Gust a moment ago, but she wasn’t sure she could have given the other a proper answer, mind still whirling around the interaction as she pulled herself back into the room around her.

“And then we-oh, thank you, Gust!”

“Of course.”

Some time later in the midst of a story, Gust appeared with a tray balanced in one hand, serving Arlo a squat glass with ice and a lime wedge on the side in case he wished to add it into the clear liquid, Gale already sipping on a tall glass of pastis himself.

Liz watched Gust’s arm appear over his sister’s left shoulder curiously, having not the faintest idea what exactly might have been Ginger’s ‘usual,’ and found herself entranced by the simplistic beauty of the gentle lavender color and bright citrus scent he handed her.

She naturally received the same drink, as she requested, and murmured her thanks, suddenly keenly aware that Gust put a hand on her left shoulder and bent over to her ear on the opposite side.

“A mocktail. Lemon and lavender.” He told her privately, lips lingering near her ear as his honeycomb and sandalwood scent washed over her.

Before she could say or do much of anything else except be electrified by his closeness and the thought that if he moved just a hair closer he’d be kissing her, he had risen and skirted the edge of the couch to place the final glass on his tray on the end nearest the empty chair on the other side of Liz before turning to take the tray back to the kitchen.

Liz didn’t expect him to reach out as he passed behind her and discretely skate his fingers across the back of her shoulders when he went by.

Remembering the beverage in her hand as the door to the kitchen swung closed behind Gust, Liz took a contemplative sip, still lost in regards to any possible conversation occurring around her, despite her genuine interest in what Arlo had been up to while he was gone. Pleasantly refreshing and sweet, Liz blinked at the glass as Ginger turned to her with a gentle smile.

“Father only ever lets _him_ mix the drinks anymore.” 

“Oh?”

Ginger nodded, “He may have been bemoaning just the other evening Gust’s absence because of it.” She hid a giggle behind a hand.

“For some reason, I never thought they liked each other much.” Liz admitted, remembering how starkly contrasted Gust’s feelings tended to be when it came to his father, or rather, how his father viewed things.

“Gust’s always been more realistic than Father is.” Ginger replied after a pause of consideration for the idea, “He tends to think Father’s ideas are grandiose and optimistic-”

“And often misplaced.” 

The pair of them started a little as Gust spoke up while taking his seat next to them, leaning forward to retrieve the drink he left a moment ago.

“And, as usual, Ginger is being overly kind.” He settled back in the chair and crossed one leg over the other, “I believe the term usually associated with my outlook is ‘pessimistic.’”

“I don’t think you’re ever pessimistic.” Ginger piped up.

“That’s because you tend to only see the best in everyone.”

“Well, someone has to.” She gave him a small smile. “Everyone knows father means well, but he cares about your opinions, too. You’re much more capable of taking in all possible aspects about things than he can be at times. I think you balance him out.”

“Well, everyone knows you take after him.” Gust replied as he lifted his drink to his lips, “Too kind for your own good and only ever seeing the best in people.”

“Then, I guess that must mean you take after mother. Or you would if you cared to. You’re rarely wrong about things.”

“That comparison’s much too good for me.” Gust murmured quietly after a beat.

Ginger did seem the type to readily forgive and forget the past, if Gust’s absence at the beginning of her life and their relationship now were any indication. The interaction made Liz consider how Ginger must perceive her brother. Possibly as if he could do no wrong. A bit skewed, in Liz’s opinion. Gust was rarely right about things when it came to people, if his misreading Mint’s intentions with his family all those months ago tended to be his usual faire. He genuinely seemed like he might be the type to have a hard time trusting people, not that Liz would blame him for it, given his past.

“Lizzie, what’s this I hear about Toby and that plane you built for the Builder’s Bout?”

The three people on the other side of the room all looked up and over at Gale and Arlo together, Arlo giving Liz a grin.

“Gale was telling me he’s been taken in as a member of the Civil Corps!”

Liz nodded, though Gale corrected him:

“Now, that was a _junior_ member, mind! He’ll only be fourteen come the fall.”

“Well, they wouldn’t let me join until I was fifteen.” Arlo replied, an expression passing over Liz’s face that had him returning his gaze to her and teasing right back, “I see you over there _Miz_ Lizzie. Have something to _say_, do you?”

“I wasn’t going to say anything.” Liz loftily lifted her nose further into the air.

Ginger hid her giggle behind a hand.

Arlo raised an eyebrow at her, though he still wore his roguish smile, “Mm, yes, of course not. But then again, you didn’t have to, did you? Face told the whole thing.”

“I haven’t the faintest idea to what you’re referring.” Liz raised her glass to her face in an effort to hide the fight with her lips she currently battled to keep from smiling.

Ginger caught the surprisingly mischievous expression across her own brother’s face. Well-hidden to most, but not to her. The slightest smile, just enough to lift his cheeks, and his eyes were gleaming as his gaze flickered between the other two.

“The plane, Lizzie?” Arlo said again, “We were talking about the plane.”

“Mm-” She swallowed, “Yes, of course. I caught Toby eyeing it in the museum and asked him if he’d like a chance to look at it himself. He seemed so interested, I let him help me build a second and then-” She shrugged a little, “-let him have it when we were done. Merlin and Petra and the All-Source were especially helpful in reassembling a sort of manual for the thing. We’ve made him promise not to try and fly it on his own until he’s gone through a few simulations the All-Source is cooking up, but...” Liz shrugged as if she’d say nothing more about it and then smiled, “He’s kept himself busy in any case.”

“If you’ll all gather at the table, dinner is ready!” Russo stuck his head back inside the living room before disappearing into the kitchen again and amidst rumblings from the gathered as to being hungry and everything smelling so wonderful, everyone started to slowly rise and make their way over to the table, Gale taking the head and Arlo sitting to his left with Liz on Arlo's other side. Gust pulled out Ginger’s seat for her on Gale’s right before sitting next to her and leaving the foot of the table for Russo.

“Did you need help serving, Russo?” Gust asked as the butler whirled back into the room with a plate in each hand and made his way over to the other side of the table to place one in front of Arlo and the other in front of Gale.

“If you like, come along.” He replied as Gust began to rise from his seat and disappear into the kitchen with the other, Russo’s voice muffled from the other side of it in explanation.

Gale remained leaning back in his chair chatting with everyone, the first two waiting until the others had their food to begin, and Russo and Gust emerged with four other plates, Russo ducking to the other side of the table to Ginger’s left to place her’s and then Gust’s while Gust had Liz and Russo’s.

“Did you need something else to drink, darling? I noticed you’d finished the one from earlier.”

Liz lost track of any conversation to the warmth of Gust’s breath near her neck as he placed her plate from over her left shoulder.

“No, water will be fine, thank you.” She managed to tell him, seeing out of the corner of her eye how he smiled a little before pulling away and the absence of his presence letting her catch her breath as he disappeared into the kitchen again only to return bustling Russo out insisting the other have a seat and start to enjoy the meal with the others while he take care of something or another Liz couldn’t quite make out.

This time she found her eyes drawn to him when he reappeared, circling behind her--which made her anticipatory at first--only to scoop the glass at his father’s place setting and fill it with a flourish from a pitcher of water he’d retrieved from the kitchen.

When it came Liz’s turn after Arlo’s, she similarly mumbled her thanks as Gust continued to move around the table, her gaze tracking him and not even noticing the taste of the food she had begun eating alongside the others.

When she glanced up as he took Ginger’s glass, he caught her watching him and tilted his head a little, raising a delicate eyebrow her direction as she blinked and realized there was no point in trying to hide her staring.

He broke the moment first after a long beat, subtle amusement resting across his features as he turned back down to Ginger’s glass and filled it and put it back down next to her.

Liz felt her ears turning pink as she made a conscious effort to focus on the food and the rest of the room again, realizing everyone had fallen silent taking their first few bites.

“This is really good, Russo.” Arlo said emphatically around a bite of his meal after a minute or so had passed.

Everyone around the table echoed their agreement.

Liz’s upward glance shifted to Gust across from her, who was eyeing Arlo out of his periphery with something of amusement. It seemed as if no one else at the table thought any differently about Arlo’s assertion, as the murmurs of assent mixed with similar exclamations of enjoyment made their rounds to the tune of Russo’s humble acceptance of the accolades.

“There’s nothing quite like a home-cooked meal and we don’t exactly get any when we’re out and about.” The adventurer added.

While other conversation continued around her, Liz’s thoughts were still circling around Gust, successfully enamored by him, with the sudden realization that perhaps he’d done it all on purpose, the little moments here and there, some more innocuous like how when they’d stood up to move around the furniture to the table, he had stepped aside to let her pass first after Ginger moved beyond them both, his hand resting against her back just above her hip as she went by.

His intentions being as such would not come as a surprise to her, she found.

In mid-bite, Liz locked eyes with the blonde across the table, frozen in place and wondering exactly how long he’d been staring at her-no, not _staring._

Smoldering. 

He casually reached for his glass, continuing to watch her as she slowly finished closing her mouth around her fork while her heart started racing, quite certain she’d never seen that expression on Gust’s face before. In his eyes. 

Her thoughts were quickly revolving around the events of just last night, gaze locked with his and feeling certain he was remembering them too, the first time he’d been able to-

Ginger said something next to him and just like that the moment had passed, all semblance of anything but his usual neutral falling away when Gust turned to engage with her, leaving Liz blinking at him as she reached for her own water.

The rest of the meal continued as such, a few lovely courses prepared expertly by the resident butler, the night drawing to a close with a light dessert accompanied by another round of drinks prepared by the tall blonde.

His attentions to Liz were measured, half the time leaving her wanting them and not delivering and the other half of the time coming at a moment when she almost didn’t expect it: fingers lightly skating up her arm when he set a plate down during a different course, thumb brushing against her own when he handed her a drink with dessert. She also noticed other moments when he would steal glances at her when no one else was looking, once earning a small, warm smile in return for her questioning gaze that quickly heated her cheeks at the depth of the tender expression. A look she’d never seen him wear for certain.

Towards the end of the night, finished with her portion and only sipping at her drink, Liz blinked in the midst of the polite conversation and leaned closer to Russo, who noticed and mirrored her movement to hear her ask, “The restroom is down the hall...?”

He nodded, gave slightly more specific instructions, and Liz excused herself quietly, making her way into the hall and smiling at the decor of the rest of the house, but making no hesitation to move for the door Russo described.

She blushed furiously when she came back out of the door wiping her wet hands on her back pockets out of habit to find Gust striding down the hall for her, wishing she’d actually used the hand towel instead of drying them on her clothing out of habit, but the other did not appear to notice or otherwise blanch at her faux pas.

“Gust...?” She barely managed to whisper, blushing further at his apparent single-mindedness in getting to her.

He stopped just short of her and she couldn’t look away from the intensity of his fiercely jewel-toned eyes as his presence invaded her own, sandalwood and honeycomb and the sudden force of his personality abruptly bringing any other thoughts she might have ever had to a halt.

She barely managed his name. Anything else she might have thought to say caught in her throat.

“Elizabeth...” 

Out of the corner of her eye she spied movement, a hand, his, lifting from his side and reaching in her direction, but pausing, and she didn’t think it was from hesitation.

“...can I kiss you? Please?”

His plea sounded strained underneath the self-control she found so readily associated with him and while her mouth parted almost before his question, she could only nod, suddenly spying his lips and realizing they were something she wanted to feel moving against her own just then.

When she slowly reached for him, he seemed to unfreeze, the tension built up at his shoulders dropping as their hands found one another: Gust’s slipped beneath her shirt for her waist, the skin he found satisfying him as his thumbs traced circles there and Liz reaching for his neck as he bent over her more fully, his long hair gently falling forward and covering her fingers when he met her for their kiss.

The room, the circumstances around her all but melted away as she let Gust’s bold kisses wash over her senses, completely contented to be where she was tasting the hints of the drink he’d poured for himself as his tongue found hers, though a quick breath did not otherwise give the indication his actions were influenced by the alcohol. 

A sudden catch of her lungs and he pulled away, pausing and realizing a palm slid up her side and his thumb snuck beneath the edge of the underwire of her bra.

The color of her cheeks drew one of those small smiles onto his features as she blinked and wished he’d go back to kissing her.

He slowly retreated his hand back down her ribs with an accompanying, “Not here, mm?”

She meant to remind him they were in the open, in the middle of a hallway, but it seemed he sensed the more accurate meaning behind her shying away from his touch as he leaned over her ear to speak and her eyes closed as his lips began coming together across her jaw and cheek and neck.

“My room is unchanged...and just over there.”

“Gust...”

“Hm?” He hummed against her collarbone where he’d shifted aside her shirt.

“...we’d...be missed...”

Gust huffed out a breath over the wetness of the kisses he left and Liz shifted in place, trying not to make a sound before she added, “...or they’d hear us...”

“...I don’t care...” 

She felt him give her bottom a squeeze as he pulled her up towards him and almost off her feet and with a passing thought she suddenly wondered how he planned on hiding his erection from his family or if he’d already had one most of the night and she hadn’t noticed. 

In either case, there was no mistaking the stifled groan beneath his fingers still at her torso as the muscles around her ribs clenched trying not to let it slip between her lips, but he felt it at her mouth anyway as he had returned to hers searching for her kisses again.

As wrapped up as she had become with him, Liz’s ears were also straining to hear any conversation coming from the other room, aware Gust had her at his mercy right where anyone who happened to move a few steps from the table their direction would see.

Liz suddenly tapped his chest with her hand, eyes widening when they came open at the sound of a chair scraping from the table and Arlo's voice saying something that felt like it drew the evening to a close and Gust parted with her, his own ears twitching at the noise.

“I promised to walk with Ginger this evening.” Without saying anything else to her, he skirted to her side and moved beyond her into the bathroom as she watched Arlo finish saying something to, presumably, Ginger across the way from him at the table where Liz couldn’t see and her redhead gave a bright smile in her direction as she managed to make her feet move forward and caught his attention.

“Did you finish?” He wanted to know, glancing over at her plate to see a couple of bites still left.

Liz nodded as she reentered the room, “It was delicious-” she said to Russo with a grin as she placed her hand on her stomach, “-but I’m absolutely stuffed. Thank you.”

As Arlo made to reach for her hand as she came closer, he gave her a questioning look as it seemed like a moment to excuse themselves and head home. Liz took his offer and murmured, “He said he would walk Ginger. To the riverside, probably.”

Arlo nodded and the goodbyes started circulating around her, all of which she responded to absently until she heard-

“-that he’s home at a decent hour, yeah?” 

-and noticed the wily expression on Arlo’s face. Liz blinked and filled in the rest of the conversation, realizing he was talking to Ginger, who was smiling at the two of them, about Gust and catching her soft promise that she would. 

She and Arlo were at the door, being escorted by all the other three in its direction and when she caught Gale looking about for Gust, told him the other had slipped into the bathroom when she came out.

Gale nodded, then, satisfied, and welcomed them back any time.

“Ah,” Arlo let out a long sigh of contentment as he let go of Liz’s hand to stretch his arms above his head in the moonlight as they started to make their way back to the workshop.

When his arm found its way across her shoulders, she reached up to entwine her fingers in his and leaned into him as he kissed the side of her head.

“I missed Portia.” He looked out over the town, the streets fairly empty at this time of night.

“Really?”

A nod, “In all the excitement, I didn’t really have much time to think about it, but the stability I definitely missed.” The edges of his eyes crinkled with a smile she lost sight of when he went to rest his temple against her hair.

“Stability?” Liz sounded skeptical, one of her eyebrows raising.

He let out a laugh, “Hm, yeah, I guess now that I say it aloud, it doesn’t make too much sense. But you came at a big time of change for Portia. It went through so many phases and you were a crucial part of all of them.” Another kiss to her hair. “Until you came along, things changed, but nothing happened quite so pivotal as your time here has been. You’ll just have to trust me on the ‘stability’ part, I guess. It’s a way different world out there. Like nothing I could have ever imagined.”

“Wild.”

Arlo nodded, “Untamed. Maybe it was at one time. I’m sure it was, we’re finding ruins and things all the time.” 

He felt more than heard Liz give the sigh and he leaned away from her a moment trying to see her face.

“It sounds exciting.”

“It definitely is.” His eyes brightened with the thoughts of his adventures and he thought maybe Liz looked a little wistful at the notion.

A sudden thought occurred to him and Arlo opened his mouth, but quickly closed it again as they turned to continue down the ramp, remembering something Mali had said to him once what seemed like forever ago.

_“...If the Alliance Council got wind of her skills, they would be keeping an eye on her at best, beating a path to her door at worst.”_

_“And you think that’d be a bad thing?”_

_“I think...I think she’s happy right where she is. At least for now. That’s why I don’t think we should say anything. Maybe some day she’ll be looking for a change, looking for more than what Portia can offer her. But for now...she seems very content with her lot in life. And I wouldn’t want to take that from her.”_

“...Lizzie?” He finally broke the companionable silence as the two of them started to enter the plaza for the last stretch home.

“Mm?”

“...are you happy?”

Liz tilted her head his direction, tucking closer to him as they walked so it was between his chin and his shoulder and he gave her a squeeze.

“Why wouldn’t I be happy, Arlo?” She smiled as he gave a contented sigh he likely didn’t even realize he was doing as he hugged her to him.

“Well, if you’re ever _bored,”_ He teased suddenly, coming to a conclusion about how to offer without making it seem too serious, “You can just come pass the exam yourself, I guess, huh?”

“Ar-_lo_,” Liz shoved at his chest with a grin as she stood back up, “You’re terrible.”

“No way. I’m the best. You ask anybody. Hey, Paulie!” He shouted suddenly over her head.

She hissed his name again unable to stop smiling.

“What?” He wanted to know, giving her an innocent look, “I was just going to ask-”

_“Don’t.”_

“Why not?” He grinned at Paulie as they approached the other, but only gave him a passing wave instead of stopping to engage with him.

“You’re ridiculous.” Liz told Arlo as he steered them out onto the road.

“So I’ve heard.” He told her, twinkle in his eye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UPDATE Nov. 1st: AHHHHH So, long story short, next chapter is close to being finished, house was out of power for over four days last week, I'm just now catching up on all the things. 
> 
> Also, I AM SO PUMPED FOR MY TIME AT SANDROCK AAAAHHHH.
> 
> I definitely am posting this update just after having supported them on Kickstarter, so you can definitely expect to see 'thelaststarmaker' in the credits on the game when it comes out XD No ragurts. It looks amazing.


	37. Gust: Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Gust goes home...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I figured it was high time I posted another chapter. Especially since today is the two-year anniversary of the full release of this beloved game that has sparked many a creator's imagination.~<3 If you're reading this, kudos to YOU, dear reader, for making through the craziness that was 2020.
> 
> And here's to me striving to finish up this lovable piece before 2021 ends XD
> 
> As I always tend to do when I come back after a long absence, there are a few editorial mistakes fixed from previous chapters as I caught myself back up over the past couple of days. Nothing major, mostly grammatical changes. But it definitely seems like every time I go back and read over it, I always catch things I haven't seen yet, ha!

There was a certain amount of disgust wavering across the planes of his mind as he leaned over the sink in the bathroom of his father’s home, meticulously tending to the soap on his hands and trying not to indulge the self-induced satisfaction he had just finished subjecting himself to.

Of _course_ he had meant to get _her_ attention, _her_ aroused. She was just so _responsive_ as to delight him, almost able to feel for himself the sort of tingle his touch invoked across her skin when he brushed his fingers against her arm in such a way that no one else might guess at his intentions.

And it all genuinely had little to do with the husband who’d shown up that morning. Gust found his emotional response to Arlo’s sudden reappearance to continue to be more resigned and tentative than anything. He wasn’t exactly sure what he would do this evening. Would he go back after his walk with Ginger? Stay the night here in his old bed? The three of them hadn’t exactly...settled the matter. At least not to Gust’s mind. 

He never would have thought it possible to have been so willing to share something he found so very dear to him, but he felt no _possessiveness,_ no sense of being _territorial_ with her, and did not think his actions that night had anything to do with either.

It was just so _fun_ to stir her up like that. Right under everyone’s noses. And she reacted so _perfectly._

Another grimace passed over his eyebrows and the tension behind the mask of his face tried to distract him from just how willing she had been in his arms earlier. 

He wouldn’t have cared if _anyone_ had seen them just then, though he couldn’t say he didn’t almost lift and carry her away completely to what had once been his room, his bed, simply for the sake of ease in the moment.

His nightmares following their first time together were the last thing on his mind right now.

He hadn’t exactly planned on getting himself so worked up this evening, but the fact that he had more than just his imagination to go on at this point did little to soothe the inner battle going on between embracing his contentment or his distaste with himself.

Trying to resolve himself to it having been unavoidable if he wished to keep his sanity for the evening--knowing if he _did_ go...home...later, _did_ end up sleeping in the bed he’d occupied for what seemed like so long now, it would be to _both_ Arlo and Liz awaiting him and he did not fancy either one of them being quite so comfortable with what had been his earlier urges as to not protest any advances he might make--Gust let out a breath as he washed the soap from his hands and turned off the running water, stepping over to dry them on a hand towel and turning to leave the bathroom.

“Ready to go, Ginger?” He asked as he stepped back into the open living/dining area and absently noting she rose from her place at the couch as he moved for the front door to retrieve her parasol from its place in the large vase next to the front door.

Ginger watched him carefully as she made her way towards him, but found nothing aside from the muted calm he usually radiated, an absent-minded sort of attention in his tending to her that did not seem out of place as the pair of them made their slow, strolling way out of the house heading for the nearby plaza.

“You love her.”

Gust blinked up at the stars whose gentle twinkling had nearly lulled him into the nap that typically awaited him at the riverbank.

Ginger’s expression lightened at the hint of pink sneaking across the delicate pale of her brother’s cheeks.

“I-” His eyes cast off to the side opposite her as if she needed any further affirmation and for her part, Ginger turned her gaze back to the swelling waters with a gentle smile on her face that had not been there before.

“I’m glad.”

Gust still couldn’t bring himself to look at her, remembering the last time they’d had a similar conversation. Where she’d said something about how he’d changed and how Ginger noticed Elizabeth made him happy.

“Is it that obvious?”

Glancing his direction, Ginger noticed how the edges of his eyes had lost any of their tension, softening with what she presumed to be thoughts of the woman who had only hours prior been in their father’s home.

“Why wouldn’t you want anyone to know?” Ginger asked after a moment’s contemplation.

Gust released a breath, unsurprised by his sister’s observation.

“You’ve never cared what anyone thought before.” She added.

“You’re too smart for your own good, have I ever told you that?”

“No.” Ginger smiled at him as he gave her a wry look, “But you’ve always told me I was smart.” She looked away again, but after a moment continued, “I hear people say they think you’re hard to read. I think they don’t trouble themselves to look.”

“Elizabeth did.” Gust mumbled, Ginger nodding.

“It doesn’t matter to me if you don’t want anyone to know. I think you’re imagining things if you think they’ll care about the circumstances of your love. I think they’d be more concerned if you didn’t.”

Gust gave her a look.

“You’re already living with her.” Came her mild return. He scoffed.

Another pause.

“Is it harder because he’s there?” She wanted to know.

Gust didn’t reply right away, but appeared to be considering the inquiry. 

“I don’t...I don’t know. I don’t think so?”

“That’s good.”

“That I don’t know or that I don’t think so?”

“Yes.”

Another scoff. 

Ginger slowly started to rise and Gust blinked at her as he shifted onto his elbows and sent a questioning look her way.

“I promised Arlo I wouldn’t keep you out too late.” She replied simply, not noticing Gust blinking again at first.

“Not even going to help me up?” The teasing twinkle in her eyes at his hesitation to compute her commentary finally caught his attention and he frowned, but got up to help.

Too wrapped up in his thoughts to really notice the walk back to his father’s house, when they reached to door and he went to open it and let Ginger inside, his sister only just stepped across the threshold far enough to turn and place a gentle hand on Gust’s arm before she stretched up on her toes to plant a soft kiss to his cheek, beginning to close her parasol to return it to its place, but standing in the doorway and not letting him by.

She gave him a meaningful look, and then a small smile. “If you think for a moment you’re unwelcome at your own home, you’re mistaken. I imagine you’d be much more comfortable there, with her, than here.”

He couldn’t quite look at her, struggling for a breath before the release of his shoulders seemed to herald his agreement, “You’re right.”

“Sleep well, brother.”

“You, too.”

The admission didn’t make the walk back through the sleeping hamlet any easier. But then again, there were a dozen thoughts circling in his head.

Ginger said it had been _Arlo_ who mentioned sending Gust home. There hadn’t really been much time for a conversation about living quarters when the plan had been originally agreed upon. In fact, as far as Gust could recall, Arlo seemed relatively dismissive about Gust’s attempts to speak of it at the time.

Gust continued to run the past twenty-four hours over and over in his head, though in particular the morning of Arlo’s return.

Gust made no assertion that he was able to read a room with any sort of proficiency in the skill whatsoever, but the entire encounter seemed...amicable. 

He could just imagine his sister giving him another look at that word, as if it wasn’t strong enough, or somehow seemed too straight-laced for the casual lived-in feeling that waking up to Arlo’s return had been.

Liz had jumped up to see him, but of _course_ she had. Her husband had been gone for who knows how many weeks. Gust would have been _more_ surprised if she hadn’t. 

He pushed his way past the gate and squared his shoulders as he moved for the front door, ears straining as if maybe hearing the other pair talking about when he might return would ease his mind. 

There was no such luxury, and the quiet air to the place meant Gust entered the house without saying anything, thoughts turning over the conversation he’d broached at breakfast, reassuring them he would find other lodgings, sleep on the couch if he had to-

A quiet chuffing at his ankle was his only greeting, eyeing QQ near the door who noticed his entrance, but only moved far enough away from bed to notice his master and then promptly returned to it and sleep, much to Gust’s amusement. 

Frowning, Gust didn’t call out to the others. The house was dark, which came as no particular surprise given the hour, and he slipped his loafers off in silence as his ears and eyes adjusted to the indoors.

_This is your home._

The voice was Ginger’s. Arlo’s.

Elizabeth’s.

He padded quietly across the floor to his left, through the archway, towards the left side of the room beyond as he unbuttoned his jacket and only took cursory note of the steady breathing of the pair in the bed, of Arlo occupying the side he was used to having Liz be on, his wife in the middle as if cognizant of the other two’s preferred placement.

_There’s plenty of room._

Gust wasn’t so comfortable as to strip completely, standing at the edge of the bed and hesitating only briefly before sliding between the covers, watching Liz’s peaceful expression as he settled further away from her than he would have liked, only to have her turn on her side to face him.

A furrow to her brow had him reaching out to smooth his thumb across it as her eyes fluttered open to watch him while he traced the outline of her face with a smile of contentment, himself aware that Arlo’s arm was snaked under her pillow.

When he let out a breath that Liz read as resigned, she made a small noise and shifted around until her hands found him beneath the sheets, fingers at his waist finding the skin beneath his tank top and curling there only to tug at him and then more insistently when he frowned, conflicted.

“C’mere.” She grumbled through tired lips that spoke of her not having truly woken, but frustrated at his resistance in any case.

For the sake of hoping she would settled and not wake Arlo with her complaints, Gust followed after her request to the tune of her relaxing sigh once he’d caught her up in his embrace, her head buried in his chest and her hands flattening against the bare skin below his shirt at his back for a moment before beginning to shift absent, comforting patterns over it.

He could feel Arlo’s arm beneath the crook of his neck and hoped the other would be able to remove it if the two of them really did fall asleep like this.

“How was your walk?” Liz murmured, unaware of the look Gust gave over her wishing she would go back to sleep.

“Good.” He leaned down and pressed his lips in the midst of her hair, thinking the reassurance of his presence might help her retreat into slumber.

“I’ve never seen Ginger so happy.” She noted, pulling away from him a little to blink sleepily up into his face.

Gust honestly agreed with her, though he wasn’t exactly sure why he thought she seemed particularly pleased, but when he went to say as much he froze as Arlo’s other arm suddenly rested over them both.

Liz stifled a chuckle in one hand as she felt Arlo’s chest come to rest against her back and his nose bury itself into her neck, a sigh releasing all down her skin as his weight on them both increased with unconsciousness.

“Apparently he’s used to sleeping in a pile of bodies.” Liz told the architect in an attempt to explain the adventurer’s behavior, feeling Gust reluctantly unfreeze again when Arlo stilled. “They’ve been surveying at higher altitudes. Colder climates.”

Gust wasn’t exactly comfortable, but he wasn’t exceedingly uncomfortable, either.

“If you decide you want to go sleep on the couch, I wouldn’t blame you.” Liz added, eyelids sliding closed again and hiding her amusement. “He was practically smothering me earlier and I couldn’t wake him up enough to get him off.”

“Well, if I left you now, I’m sure he’d only smother you again.” Gust informed her, sending a half-hearted glare over her shoulder and no longer concerned about waking what was apparently a heavy sleeper.

He felt her shoulders shake in a quiet laugh as she let out another breath herself and relaxed into him again.

_This...isn’t so bad._

Gust similarly let his eyes close and the tension at his neck slip away, though he was conscious of the additional body next to them for a long while yet. In a different way than he had come to find Liz’s presence next to him to be comforting all those weeks ago, having Arlo there with them wasn’t nearly as strange as he imagined it being when envisioning this scenario over his time at the house.

_In fact, it’s...kinda nice._


End file.
